Machias ranger helped in ‘historic event’

HAMMOND, La. – To look at Jeff Currier on Thursday, no one would know he’d just spent 17 long, hot days laboring in the sweaty chaos of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. The 36-year-old Machias resident was impeccably turned out in the snappy khaki shirt and center-creased, forest-green trousers of the Maine Forest Service uniform – an outfit he had carefully preserved for his trip back home to Maine.

“To all of us in the Forest Service, it’s important to represent the service and the state of Maine in a positive light,” Currier said shortly after receiving his travel itinerary for a Friday flight into Bangor. “That includes looking good and projecting a positive, can-do attitude.”

Currier’s can-do attitude is what brought him to the Gulf Coast area shortly after the hurricane and subsequent flooding left hundreds of thousands of area residents without clean drinking water, food, shelter, power, transportation, and other necessities. A district supervisor for Forest Service rangers in all of Hancock County and southern Washington County, Currier was quick to tell his superiors that he would be honored to serve in the Gulf Coast disaster effort.

“I wanted to help in this historic event,” he said. “And I’m proud to work for an agency that recognizes the importance of participating in disaster relief efforts. This experience helps ensure that if disaster strikes in Maine, the Forest Service will be able to fulfill its role as a lead response agency.”

Under the authority of the Texas Forest Service, which in the current relief effort reports directly to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Currier came to Louisiana a few days after Katrina struck at the end of August. His first assignment was to take charge of one of several emergency distribution centers on the outskirts of New Orleans.

In a bus station parking lot just west of town, Currier’s team of Texas Forest Service rangers and Pennsylvania Army National Guard troops loaded cases of government-supplied bottled water, blocks of ice, prepackaged meals, and blue plastic tarps into the vehicles of anyone who drove in – no questions asked.

“We figured that if they were willing to wait in line for 20 minutes, they probably needed the help,” he said. The site loaded an average of 2,500 vehicles per day.

After a week, Currier was asked to oversee the operations of six such distribution centers in the area – drive-through depots in the parking lots of bingo halls, shopping malls and other public spots. Among other improvements, he increased efficiency by prohibiting chit-chat between the workers and the recipients.

“It sounds a little heartless,” he acknowledged. “But our goal is to serve as many people as possible.”

The regulation allowed four vehicles per minute to receive requested supplies and leave the site, a great efficiency when cars and trucks were lined up for a mile or more awaiting their turn.

Currier also worked out logistical difficulties at the sites, arranging for garbage collection and other operational necessities. He visited each site daily, making sure things were running smoothly and trouble-shooting problems.

Each night he returned to the Texas Incident Management Team’s headquarters in Hammond, more than an hour’s drive away across the Lake Pontchartrain causeway. In an out-of-business J.C. Penney store at the Hammond Square Mall, Currier slept on a cot, cheek to jowl with 2,000 other relief workers. He showered in a mobile hygiene unit set up in the parking lot and, under a massive tent, ate food provided by contracted caterers.

He has clearly valued his stay here despite certain frustrations and privations. “I don’t want to say it was fun,” he said, “because we’re clearly dealing with a lot of troubling issues and personal tragedies.”

But since the Maine Forest Service plays a lead role in the state’s disaster planning system, he said participation in the post-Katrina relief effort is invaluable training for similar scenarios that could unfold in other states, including – knock on wood – his home state of Maine.

“People tend to think of the Forest Service as just a bunch of firefighters,” he said. “But the truth is, we’re trained in all aspects of disaster management.”

Currier left Hammond on Thursday afternoon, headed for a well-deserved night in an Atlanta hotel and a scheduled Friday flight to Bangor.

By Friday night – when weather forecasters were predicting Hurricane Rita would make landfall in the southwest corner of Louisiana – he expected to be reunited with his wife Kristyne and the couple’s four young sons: Aaron, 13; Alex, 11; Ian, 7, and Anderson, 3.

Readers: If you would like to communicate with BDN reporter Meg Haskell and photographer Gabor Degre as they report on Katrina’s aftermath from the Gulf Coast, look for their blog at www.bangordailynews.com.