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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2017)
30 Wednesday, October 18, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon DISASTER: Sisters company worked tirelessly for weeks Continued from page 1 wildland firefighting crews across the West (including the Milli Fire here in Sisters) and set up multiple base camps in Texas and Florida in response to Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. At those camps, they fed, slept and showered thousands of first- responders. In addition to the large-scale operations, they conducted dozens of small response missions across the disaster zones. With the dust just start- ing to clear from an intense summer, GFP Response and Eclipse Global founder Don Pollard sat down with The Nugget last week to describe how a company based in Sisters reaches out into distant regions of the country in their moments of acute need. The companies hold con- tracts with states in the Gulf Coast region, including Texas and Florida, to respond to disaster events, providing distribution warehouses, full- service base camps and other critical services to support first-responders. The compa- nies provide mobile shower units; laundry facilities; toilet and garbage service; dining tents and kitchens; lighting; generators and more. Pollard recalled that he had several wildland fire- fighting crews committed when GFP Response spun up in August to respond to Hurricane Harvey, which was bearing down on the Texas Gulf Coast. Harvey hit Texas with a hammer blow, drop- ping unprecedented amounts of rain. “Texas around Houston was pretty bad,” he said. “A lot of flooding.” GFP Response conducted some 208 separate response missions. Some were as small as providing a shower unit to a rural church, where the local community could gather and take care of their needs. Others were on a massive scale, like constructing a base camp for 1,500 first-respond- ers in Beaumont, Texas. In he midst of firefight- ing and responding to Harvey in Texas, Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys and ripped up the pen- insula’s west coast. Again, PHOTO COURTESY HARRY POLLARD A GFP Response base camp has a big footprint. GFP Response hit the scene, constructing seven large, full- service base camps. Their efforts won accolades from William G. Estep, incident commander of the State of Florida Incident Management Team: “The entire IMT (incident management team) wishes to compliment the superior job performance of GFP, their staff and leadership. If we were going to hand-pick a PHOTO COURTESY HARRY POLLARD base camp provider, GFP and this particular team would be GFP Response reaches out from Sisters to help across the nation. it.” Pollard attributes some a massive demand. set up and operate camps. The of his team’s proficiency to And it all made for long, work is ongoing. Though the an up-close-and-personal long days at the GFP Response effort in Florida was expected understanding of the needs of Emergency Operations Center to wrap up this week, Pollard first-responders. in the Sisters Industrial Park expects to have missions “They are, themselves, as the team worked out intri- underway in Texas until some first-responders, most of cate logistics and timetables. time in November. While the them,” he said of the GFP “There was about 10 of us, work is extremely demanding, Response team. “So they’ve and we didn’t sleep much for everybody who works for and got a natural empathy for the the first two or three weeks,” with GFP Response has the people they’re serving.” Pollard said. satisfaction of knowing that The scope of the mul- He relied on Sisters Market they have made a significant tiple responses tested GFP and The Depot Café to keep difference in people’s lives Response with the most his team fueled. when they need it most. intense pace of operations “We had them cater- “It’s pretty rewarding they have ever faced. ing every day, because we when you can do so much for “I’d say it was the first time couldn’t leave the office,” he the public good,” Pollard said. I started thinking our capa- said. For more information bilities were starting to get Many of Pollard’s team visit http://ellipse-global. pressed to the max,” he said. hail from Sisters and Central com/emergency-support/ Pollard said that the Oregon, and they deployed to gfp-response. demands of multiple mis- sions meant GFP quickly “blew through” the equip- ment that they own outright, which meant that he had to rely on an assiduously culti- vated network of subcontrac- tors. Pollard calls them allies. Having built that network and having agreed-upon prices for equipment is vital to both a timely and effective response PHOTO COURTESY HARRY POLLARD and to a company like GFP staying healthy in the midst of Sleeping tents serve first responders working in disaster areas. Prevent a Litter, Fix Your Critter! 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