Volunteering for hurricane Ike

[catmasher]

If anyone knows of a contact that needs emt's for Ike, please pm me or post it up. I am in Houston and would like to help out, but have not established many contacts yet. Also, the numbers that people are told to call to volunteer seem to be unanswered at the moment.

Thanks.

*edit: if this storm actually gets bad enough, feel free to post numbers, questions, etc so that anyone who would like to help, can.

[spenac]

512-834-6761.

Maxie Bishop, RN, LP

State EMS Director

Office of EMS and Trauma Systems

[emt~ff~82]

[/font:c719f4d2df] Is there any way to volunteer for ems/fire help even from Ohio?? or are they only going to accept neighboring states and depts??

[catmasher]

Spenac, I got bounced around a little calling that number and eventually was given a "definitive" number to call, which was not operating again until Monday. I am going to keep looking around. I am on a few stand-by lists, so if this actually causes the havoc expected, I am sure I will receive a call. Thanks for the number though.

[tniuqs]

YIKES IKE!

Ok just an wildlife observation, but I walk every night

(I am on the Canada Geese migration route and over 4000 kms away)

The geese have been honking and grouping up for the last 2 weeks.

Today: CLEAR skies, NO WIND, barametric pressure is 101.3 hPa .. that is relatively high.

The Geese are sitting on the ground and feeding ... NO FLYING ... hmmm NOT good.

This tells me WAY more than CNN.

Just get to a safe place FIRST your no damn good if your dead .... this monster is huge !

If you need help after ... just give me a holler "Northern Texans" like way north will help out too.

[Cowboy7427]

No contact info, but if anyone is preparing to go. Please be Safe.... I am Scheduled to go from Ohio early next week to relieve one of our crews that are there.... Man it is a big one. I have been watching every hour or two to see what has developed.....

[tniuqs]

Cowboy7427

They don't need Cowboys (no offence) but this happened at Katrina and it screwed stuff up .... big time.

Hunker down and observe all I am suggesting :

This from an inside source, I have asked for permisson to release but can't make contact I think hes a tad busy? I hope I am not in shit but that washes off too, but yes a second wave of certified people could become a reality and I know the EMS world is watching.

squint:

Your concern is probably deserved. This storm is of greater depth and breath than any on record. It will reach Cat-3 and even possibly Cat-4 within hours, and it is headed for the heaviest population concentration anywhere on the Gulf coast. All low-lying areas are evacuated with other areas either evacuated too or sheltering in place. All of the medical facilities and long-term care facilities are emptied. We've had use of almost 800 ambulances, both from state assets and from FEMA, and some 15-16,000 seats on Para transit vehicles. Add to that most every school bus in Texas and every contract coach we could hire and I think we have done what we can. Somewhere near a million folks are out of their homes.

We have SAR, Coast Guard, DMAT and other strike teams ready to go in once the worst is past, and we have assets lined up to repair infrastructure as rapidly as possible. There are hundreds of mobile generators ready to move into place as stop-gap, truckloads of ice and bottled water. Groceries and cooking teams are mustered with rescuers and ready to launch mobile kitchens. The major electric providers have fleets of trucks, warehouses of supplies and battalions of manpower brought in from all over the nation standing ready in safe areas and prepared to get power back up as quickly as humanly possible.

Rita and Katrina were wake-up calls. Dean, Dolly and Gustav were dress rehearsals. Tonight we stage the main event.

Thank you for your well wishes, friend. Hope to see you someday soon.

So Guys and Gals:

Looks like everything is covered, so stand down a bit and don't let the media "hype" get your BPs up, let the pros and the planners call the shots, they have this covered six ways since sunday.

That said: Maybe think about prying your wallet/ purses up a bit, lots of folks may need some economical support and very soon.

And a little prayer may help too .... just saying it couldn't hurt, and whatever you believe is the great spirit.

cheers

[tniuqs]

I just have to say, you Ohio guys ROCK ON.

[Chief1C]

Doing it for free will prevent some white trash hick from profiting through inflation, off of already poor people. There are prolly unions that cover people who charge unheard of prices to help clean up.

[spoil:b071227c62]Sarcasm[/spoil:b071227c62]

[okmedic]

We sent a truck during Gustav, and we currently have a truck down there for Ike (from Oklahoma). We were actually contacted by AMR for Gustav. AMR apparently has a contract through FEMA to provide ems units for the storm, and they were subcontracting units for Gustav, I'm assuming they are doing the same for IKE. During Gustav, our unit was stationed at a command center in Alexandria along with about 600 units from across the nation (pretty much every state in the lower 48 had trucks there. I know that Philadelphia sent 60 trucks alone. But anyway assuming that Ike is ran the same as Gustav, AMR has the contract through FEMA, so anyone wanting to send units will probably need to contact AMR.