Maine notebook

A team of medical workers from Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems’ Center for Emergency Preparedness will leave Maine today for the Gulf Coast region to aid in relief efforts.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency requested that 10 certified nurse’s assistants leave for a nine-day deployment at a hospital in Thibodaux, La. Four CNAs from EMHS plan to leave Bangor International Airport at noon today; the other six, from Maine Medical Center in Portland, plan to leave at 6:30 a.m., according to a MEMA official. The volunteers will be provided housing and three meals a day in a secure facility without power.

For nearly two weeks, EMHS has been compiling a list of medical volunteers from throughout the region and has 50 to 100 prepared to deploy. The volunteers have been assisted with collecting documentation of immunizations, medical and survival supplies, food and water, and other supplies.

A Maine forest ranger who left last week for the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast is refueling U.S. Army helicopters at a NASA facility in Stennis, Miss. Otis Gray of Greenville, a Maine Forest Service ranger pilot, drove a tanker filled with 3,000 gallons of aviation fuel to Mississippi. The area surrounding NASA’s Stennis Space Center was badly hit, but people in the coastal area are beginning to receive much-needed supplies, Gray said by cell phone Monday.

“Here they had nine waves in a succession of about 30 to 40 feet [high],” he said. “It’s just as bad here as it is in New Orleans.” All of the city’s police vehicles were underwater and no longer work, and waves even reached the overpasses of a nearby interstate, Gray said. “The people are pulling together,” he said. “They’re moving, trying to get back to normal as much as possible.”

Four other forest rangers are in the Gulf Coast area assisting with relief operations. Crew Chief Robert Southard of Holden drove a tanker with 2,800 gallons of fuel, as did District Forest Rangers Jeffrey Currier of Jonesboro and Steve Day of Greenville and Forest Ranger Tom Liba of Millinocket. Currier was a group supervisor in the Mobile, Ala., area. Day will have the same job in Mississippi. Liba will serve as a strike team leader in San Antonio, Texas.

A group of 13 members of Calvary Chapel in Orrington are expected to arrive today in the New Orleans area to repair houses and remove trees from roofs, Pastor Jim Lord said Monday by telephone. The houses belong to six to eight members of New Orleans Calvary Chapel. The group will begin working on the homes soon after they arrive, he said.

“We won’t have much downtime,” Lord said. The group plans to stay for 10 days at the home of a family that formerly attended Calvary Church in Bangor with some people tenting in the backyard, Lord said. The group brought gear and food, though the Orrington chapel plans to send to the area Thursday a truck filled with nonperishable items, baby supplies, water, tires and other donated items, he said.

Students and staff at Washington Street School in Brewer on Friday held a Red, White and Blue Day to recognize victims of Hurricane Katrina. A brief ceremony at the flagpole was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “This Land is Your Land.”

Donations from the school totaled more than $3,000, which was presented to the American Red Cross to help hurricane victims.

A group of YMCA officials from Maine voted last week to donate $5,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The donation by the YMCA Alliance of Maine Executive Cabinet, which consists of YMCA executive directors from 17 YMCAs in Maine and one in New Hampshire, will be matched by YMCA of the USA, bringing the total to $10,000. The funds will help Gulf Coast YMCAs handle the crisis and assist displaced YMCA staff. The national YMCA is helping relocate and provide child care for evacuees.

The United Way of Aroostook has established a fund for hurricane relief efforts in response to calls from local individuals and organizations. All money donated to the fund will be turned over to the United Way Hurricane Katrina Response Fund and allocated for frontline disaster relief and long-term recovery needs. “In this type of crisis, donations of money are what is most welcomed and desperately needed,” Claudia Stevens, United Way of Aroostook executive director, said in a Monday press release. “Donations of clothing, water or canned goods actually create more of a burden because of transportation issues and storage and distribution issues at the crisis area.” Checks may be mailed to the United Way of Aroostook, Hurricane Katrina Response Fund, 480 Main St., 3rd floor, Presque Isle 04769.

– From Staff Reports