Maine notebook

With thousands feared dead in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Maine members of the New England Region’s Disaster Mortuary Team have been called to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.

“A call has been made for approximately 30 team members from the region’s Disaster Mortuary Team or DMORT,” Bruce Fitzgerald, MEMA task person, said Monday. “They’re a FEMA team. They are coroners and [medical examiners] and funeral people.”

Included on the list is Patti Saucie, the team’s head of dental forensics who is from the Augusta area. She is already in Mississippi.

DMORT’s task is to provide victim identification and mortuary services under the National Disaster Medical System. While in the Gulf Coast, team members will set up and run temporary morgues, will identify victims and process and dispose of remains.

Maine participates in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which functions as a managing tool for disaster-stricken areas and has been compiling a list of requests from EMAC to match with available state resources that can be directed toward relief efforts.

With Maine’s Northeast location, requests for help from the Gulf Coast have been limited because resources from states closer to the devastation have been requested first. But every day more Mainers and resources leave to state for the storm-shattered region, according to MEMA personnel.

“I just found out this morning that two firefighters from Ogunquit have been called out,” Fitzgerald said.

Suzan Bell, executive director of the Pine Tree chapter of the American Red Cross, said the agency has been inundated with calls from residents who want to help out and is working hard to train volunteers.

“We’ve sent 30 volunteer in total from the state of Maine,” she said. “On a daily basis we are training 10 to 12 volunteers to go.”

Two Bangor Police Department officers have volunteered to assist with disaster relief, and MEMA is also working with other law enforcement agencies to coordinate additional resources, Fitzgerald said.

“We’re still working out the details to send some police officers from the Maine State Police, as well as the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, Wells Police Department and Cumberland County,” he said. “We also talked with someone from the Bangor Police Department and they’ll be sending two [officers] once we can get the paperwork sent out.”

One of the Bangor volunteers is Lt. Tim Reid but Fitzgerald didn’t know the name of the second officer. Reid could not be reached Monday, and no Bangor police spokesman could be reached during the holiday.

Within the next day or two, four volunteers from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department will deploy to the Gulf Coast to provide security in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said Monday.

“We know it won’t be today but we’re hoping tomorrow,” he said. “I expect it to be in the next day to two.”

The Sheriff’s Department is sending Chief Deputy Troy Morton, Sgt. Scott Young and Detectives Bill Flagg and Robert Jordan in one cruiser. All four are members of the department’s Special Response Team and are expected to leave right away, Ross said.

The officers have been issued Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, and their own water so they can be self-sufficient for four or five days, MEMA officials have said.

Members of the Maine Army National Guard and Air National Guard remain ready for deployment, but so far only three appeals for items, not personnel, have been received.

The Guard sent helicopter slings to Louisiana last week, and a mobile kitchen has been requested and is on a waiting list, along with a satellite communication vehicle from the 265th Maine Air National Guard in Portland.

“We hope to be finalizing the paperwork [for both] tomorrow,” Fitzgerald said.