Spilyty Ty moo, Wqi-m Springs, Oregon
September 15, 2005
Page 16
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Sacred Heart Suppah Camp Crew members, helping hurricane relief effort: Waylon
Heath, Frank Sahme, Richard Tewee, Carol Lawrence. Sacred Heart Suppah, Curtis
Stacona, Bobby Eagleheart, Timothy Kalama and Charles Kalama (from left).
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Collins recounts experience
working with victims of hurricane
By Brian Mortensen
Spilyiiy Tymoo
While many of the people
affected by Hurricane
Katrina harbored complaints
at those charged with rescu
ing them, Nancy Collins met
none of them,
Collins, the sanitation
manager for the Warm
Springs Public Works De
partment, was deployed to
southern Mississippi as part
of her duty as a commis
sioned officer for the U.S.
Public I Icalth Service Sept. 3.
Collins said officers with
the public health services are
often deployed for "readiness
for national emergencies."
"They deploy based on a
rotation basis, and my rota
tion was up," she said. Collins
has been with the Public
I Icalth Service since August
1991, and this was the first
time she had ever been de
ployed. She received the call
Thurs.,Sept. 1, when Katrina
was threatening the Gulf
Coast. She had originally been
summoned to Mississippi the
following clay but she was al
lowed an extra day to prepare.
When she called from a
cell phone for a telephone in
terview for this story, Collins
was in Gulfport, Miss., part
of an area on the Mississippi
coastline she assisted that
stretched west to Bay St.
Louis, about one hour north
of New Orleans.
Collins said she did not go
to New Orleans during her
two-week stint in the south.
A large part of her duty
was assessing relief centers
and making certain they were
sanitary, "and making sure
they were going the first
couple of days," she said.
She also swept through
neighborhoods looking for
people who may have been
stranded and unable to get
necessities like prescription
refills.
Collins described the hur
ricane damage as "hit and
miss," with some houses lev
eled by the strong winds and
others sustaining little or even
no damage, even among
neighboring houses.
"I'm surprised," she said.
"I thought it'd be all or noth
ing." Instead, she said, "Like
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a tornado, it was hit-and-miss."
The Mississippi coastline was
hit with 30-foot waves that
forced people on the shoreline
to climb to the tops of their
houses, just as on the news foot
age of refugees in New Orleans.
"When it hit, people went up
to their attics, and that's how
they survived," she said.
When the high water was in
the streets and enveloping the
neighborhoods, some took to
swimming between the houses
if they had to.
Collins described some
people as rolling with the waves,
scraping themselves on fences
as the water leveled out, allow
ing them to reach the next roof
top when the waves crested.
The attitude of the people
she has encountered in the
Gulfport-Hay St. Louis area was
surprisingly friendly and even
optimistic. Some of these in
cluded people who had lost their
houses in the storm, she said.
"People have been very ap
preciative," she said. "A lot of
what you hear has not been very
nice, but the people I've met
here have been very nice. Ev
erybody that we have talked to
has thanked us for being here."
She said, "I know people
who lost everything. And they
said it was God's way of pro
viding them with a better place
to live. People are surprisingly
optimistic
They started cleaning up, and
if they didn't have anything to
clean up, they were looking for
place to move to."
Some found refuge outside
of the area, but would come
back to clean up or repair their
houses.
"I saw people living in tents
among the sticks and the
rubble," she said. "Some people
weren't leaving until the city tells
them they have to," she said. "I
saw people out mowing the
lawn."
Now almost two weeks after
Katrina tread her dangerous
path, communities in the Deep
South are just getting their wa
ter systems back online. Some
systems may be otherwise func
tional but are possibly contami
nated by sewer leaks. Gulfport
residents, in particular, were
forced to use bottled water as
recently as last week, Collins
said.
Collins is one of 34 environ
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mental health officers sta
tioned along the Mississippi
coast. While she was there,
news from New Orleans, and
about the evacuation and un
rest left behind, was scarce.
She said local television sta
tions weren't able to broad
cast until Sunday, "although
we know they're not making
people evacuate anymore, and
they're not pumping water
out as fast as they thought
they'd be able to," she said.
Cell phone service has
been serviceable in some
places and not in others. On
the coast, it had been func
tioning, but has only recently
been working in Gulfport,
she said. The health officers
were equipped, though, with
satellite telephones and
walkie-talkies.
Out on the street, if
people appear otherwise
healthy, Collins said she's
been handing out sunscreen,
as temperamrcs are still in the
90s and humid there. She has
also been handing out insect
repellent and larvacide.
Doctors are on hand at the
relief centers, and a lot of
people have complained of
salt-water rashes, where the
floodwater stayed in contact
on their feet and legs.
The national disaster man
agement system proved to be
just as overloaded to the resi
dents in coastal Mississippi, as
well.
"One of the other prob
lems is that FEMA (the Fed
eral Emergency Management
Agency) gives people a num
ber to call or go on-line to
make claims," she said. "Most
people don't have cell phone
service, and they certainly
don't have computers. And
when they have been able to
call, they've gotten a voice
mail message. It's been frus
trating for people."
Despite the eye-opening
sights of houses literally lifted
off their foundations and
standing in the middle of the
street, and boats blown onto
the tops of vans, and the
stress of caring for people
whose lives have been shaken,
Collins said she's fared well.
"They make sure you have
plenty of water and sun
screen," she said.
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