Bangor could become stopover for hostages

Should American hostages be allowed to leave the Persian Gulf, some of them could find a temporary home in Bangor.

The Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross is gearing up for its role, should the evacuees land here.

“We’re just getting our ducks in a row so that if and when it happens, we’ll be prepared,” David Giroux, spokesman for the disaster-relief arm of the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Wednesday.

The Red Cross is one part of a “repatriation plan” required of each state with a designated port of entry by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Bangor, because of its international airport, is one of 42 such cities throughout the country, said Giroux. Its function in such an operation would be to shelter and feed the evacuees and assist with emergency communication to their families.

The agency that supervises such repatriation varies from state to state. In Maine, it is the responsibility of the state-level Emergency Management Agency. Giroux said the national Red Cross had advised its chapters in the designated ports of entry to prepare for the possibility of having to provide “some form of support.”

Giroux would not speculate how many evacuees might be housed in Bangor. “You can’t even pick a number out of the sky,” he said.

The local Red Cross preparations, said Giroux, have included asking the University of Maine about space in dormitories at University College in Bangor, and “reviewing our own repatriation plan, alerting staff, and positioning resources.”