The red cross,as dependant upon supply as anything else

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO Red Cross disaster planning Preparations include shelters in communities country-wide

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By David M. Bresnahan ) 1999 WorldNetDaily.com

The American Red Cross has established Y2K emergency disaster plans which include providing shelters in virtually every community in the country. They advise families and individuals to plan on being self-sufficient for at least 72-hours when the new year arrives. There are over 1,300 local Red Cross chapters throughout the United States with over 1.3 million volunteers ready to go into action to provide mass care services in the event of any disaster, including problems caused by the Y2K computer bug.

Michael Logan, senior planner for American Red Cross Disaster Services agreed with FEMA officials who recently expressed concern that Y2K may result in multiple problems which will strain the limited resources available to deal with them.

"There may be a multitude of events happening around the four-hour or eight-hour time frame if you start with Guam or whatever, where midnight occurs in a number of places. There will be a number of small events," said Logan in a phone interview with WorldNetDaily.

"We sometimes overestimate the capability of state and local governments to respond to the needs. What a lot of the federal community's trying to look at is like, our local communities respond just like our chapters do every single day. Police and fire respond every single hour of every single day. The states aren't familiar with dealing with multiple events in their jurisdictions at the same time," he explained of his concerns.

"It's being able to allocate a number of resources to a number of places at the same time, and then being able to turn to the federal government whenever the state and local assets have been depleted to provide whatever support will be required," Logan stated.

The Red Cross is part of a network of 25 federal agencies working under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare for potential disasters throughout the country if the Y2K millennium bug causes problems. The primary role of the Red Cross is to establish and operate shelters for large numbers of people who may be forced out of their homes when the new year dawns.

"Over the past few months, the Red Cross has asked local chapters to survey their local areas to find facilities that will be available for shelter use. They have also been asked to find facilities that already have generators available," explained Logan.

Local Red Cross chapters have been actively updating their lists of potential shelter locations to be ready for the Y2K threat. The most desired shelters are large schools with shower and kitchen facilities. If schools are not available, churches become the next best location, according to Logan.

Because the greatest threat of the Y2K bug is the potential loss of electric power, the Red Cross is now looking for shelter locations that are already equipped with emergency power generators. Such locations are hard to find, and FEMA has ordered 1,000 generators to be sent to locations all over the country in advance of the new year -- just in case.

"We anticipate that the majority of state and local emergency operations centers will be activated for the period surrounding New Year's Eve. We anticipate that we will have Red Cross staff physically present in those EOCs during their activation period. Once a local emergency management is made aware of a situation of whatever origin, whether it's Y2K, a drunk who hits a power pole, or a snow storm, in a situation requiring sheltering, they'll turn to the Red Cross," stated Logan.

Some communities will have no problems while others will be confronted with various emergencies, according to Logan. Red Cross workers will be moved to the areas that need them the most.

In addition to the 1.3 million volunteers, the Red Cross has over 30,000 other trained staff who will be on call 24-hours a day coordinated by the disaster services human resources system of the Red Cross national office.

"If there were multiple locations that would require external support, we've got people across the country who would not be affected who we could then bring in to the affected area to provide the necessary support," explained Logan.

The national office of the Red Cross is Y2K compliant, has backup generators, as well as satellite telephones for use if Y2K causes a loss of telephone service.

If a disaster is declared by local or national government officials, it will take several days to establish shelters for mass care of people. Local fire and police officers will most likely go door to door in affected areas to let people know of the availability of shelters. Once people arrive at the shelters the work of the Red Cross will really begin. All those people will need to eat.

During the first few days of life in a Red Cross shelter, food will come from the surrounding community through various resources already in place.

"Relationships have already been established with various vendors of food and supplies," Logan explained. Fast food restaurants will supply some short-term needs, and long-term supplies have been arranged. Stockpiles of food are also available within schools which would be replenished by Red Cross after the event. In addition, the Red Cross provides receipts for donated food from restaurants which can be used for tax deductions.

When the power goes out for any length of time, restaurants can either watch their food go bad, or they can donate it to the Red Cross for a tax receipt.

"Shelter residents have been known in the past to have filet mignon in the shelter and lobsters," said Logan.

After local resources are used, long-term supplies will be brought in if people remain in shelters for longer periods.

"Our chapters have got resources. They've got warehouses. The ones in New York State have got warehouses of resources that they can employ for response to a winter storm and power outages. The folks down south have got different storages based on their risks. That's the first line of response, the resources the chapter already has available.

"We then have several warehouses around the country called disaster field supply centers that have got back up material available in those. We also have what we call our emergency response vehicles," explained Logan.

There are several hundred emergency response vehicles the Red Cross can use to move supplies from areas where they are not needed into areas faced with disaster. Commercial trucking would also be used where needed.

"Without trying to lessen the potential impact of the event or trying to oversimplify it, for our organization it's business as usual. The 1,300 chapters that we have across the country that cover every square inch of the nation and its territories stand ready at any moment to respond to any disaster event that would occur in their community. That's what we're preparing for, whatever the impact of a Y2K event. We're preparing for the shelter. The mass care. Whether it's from a driver who runs into a power pole and puts his community without power or it's a computer glitch that puts them without power. The end result is our job," declared Logan.

The Red Cross has a web site and provides a checklist designed to help people prepare for a Y2K emergency. Logan says he wants every person in America to be prepared to go it alone for at least 72 hours.

"Saying that folks should go out and get a 72-hour kit, I'm not sure what that would mean. What we would want folks to do is to be prepared and self-sufficient for 72 hours following a disaster," explained Logan. "The important thing is building that in collaboration with the development of a family disaster plan."

He said that this should be just the start, not the end of family disaster planning and preparedness. However, he was not prepared to recommend that families store more than a few days supply of food.



-- zoobie the nutbag (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), November 27, 1999

Answers

Zoobie;

I s this a current article? I can't find it on WND's site and I recall seeing something very similar from April-May 1999?

I wonder how successful the shelter program is.

I have worked to establish one such Red Cross Shelter in Mason, Ohio and the local Red Cross position on Y2K remains a BITR. However the local RC did say that several of their members are big time GIs but official policy remains same as Koskinen's official position.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), November 27, 1999.


It's not new,just a slow weekend repost.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), November 28, 1999.

Not too many slow weekends available to us.

-- number six (yaddayadda@?.com), November 28, 1999.

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