Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Randy Whitfield of Sweet Home left last week to join a team helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Whitfield, a Lebanon firefighter, was joined by his captain, Bill White.
Local investment representative Theresa Grimes also is helping with the recovery effort, in Mississippi.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested firefighters to help with the relief efforts in a non-operational role, Whitfield said by cell phone at a training center in Georgia on Sept. 10. Whitfield and White filled out applications, and firefighters they work with filled their jobs at the fire station.
FEMA will reimburse costs to the Lebanon Fire Department, Whitfield said.
Whitfield said they received a call on Sept. 7 to go to work for FEMA. They were transported to Georgia where they were going through processing and take eight hours of training over the weekend.
FEMA has provided a cell phone, gasoline, rental car and hotel to the firefighters, Whitfield said. In all, about 1,600 firefighters from all over the United States are working for FEMA in the disaster relief effort.
They work in teams of eight. Whitfield and White have teamed up with firefighters from Ogdensville, N.Y.; Kansas City, Mo., and Huntsville, Ala.
“It’s interesting because I think firefighters across the country are the same sort of people,” Whitfield said.
Whitfield expected to be deployed on Sunday, but he did not know where his team would go. Teams are working in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The largest number of evacuees, more than 124,000, are in Texas.
Whitfield said his team will primarily work with hurricane victims at shelters, helping them get on their feet as fast as they can.
Grimes, who operates an Edward Jones investment office in Sweet Home, arrived in Montgomery, Ala. Saturday and was to move Sunday to Gulfport, Miss. along with some 450 other volunteers for the American Red Cross.
“We are being housed tonight in a hotel, which may be the last real bed we sleep in for the next 20 days,” she wrote in an e-mail. Grimes was unsure, when she left Sweet Home, of what part, exactly, she would be playing in the relief effort.
Some Sweet Home residents have gotten busy at home to help with the relief effort.
Olga Markert, 88, was doing her part to help on Sept. 10. She sold $263 worth of quilts with the proceeds to be used for hurricane disaster relief.
She makes quilts year round and sells them at the Christmas bazaar, Cleo Hopper said. “She called me and said she wanted to do this.”
Hopper and Judy Markert, both family members, helped her sell her quilts at her Tamarack Street home.
“It’s something I’m supposed to do,” Markert said. “Watching it on TV, well I feel like that all the time someone’s in need, I’ve got to do something. That’s about all I can do. I can donate quilts or sell quilts for a cause.”
Hopper suggested waiting to sell the quilts, she said, but Markert wouldn’t wait.
“The Holy Spirit is telling me to give,” Markert said. “You have to do it now. It can’t wait.”
Markert has been quilting for more than 10 years, she said. She quilts almost every day as a hobby to keep her busy.