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Allegany County Chapter American Red Cross |
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Allegany County Red Cross Chapter Conducts
Disaster Readiness Exercise
Wellsville, New York, May 8, 2007 – On Saturday, May 5,
2007 the Allegany County Chapter of the American Red Cross collaborated
with officials from the Northeast Service Area to conduct a Chapter
Disaster Readiness Exercise and Evaluation (CDREE).
The purpose was to assist the chapter in measuring
their readiness to respond to disasters and to develop specific
strategies to enhance their readiness.
Disaster
readiness means that each chapter has the right resources in the right
place at the right time to respond to any disaster event which may
impact its jurisdiction. This
includes establishing human resources, material resources, and critical
relationships necessary to initiate, sustain, and manage a disaster
response. The CDREE
allowed the Allegany County Chapter the opportunity to identify any
shortfalls in these resources and relationships and to begin to design
short and long-term plans to overcome these shortfalls.
This
was a table-top exercise, meaning that all the action happened in the
local Red Cross office in Wellsville.
The chapter was required to
“respond” to major flooding of the Genesee River
from the Pennsylvania border to Scio.
Two shelters were “opened.” The first shelter was at
the Christian Temple Church in Wellsville, but as time passed and it
became obvious more families would be affected, a second shelter was
“opened” at the Trinity Lutheran Church in
Wellsville. John
Tucker, Allegany County Office of Emergency Services Director was a
guest participant who said, “The Red Cross Chapter in
Allegany County is a vital resource to emergency and disaster relief. We rely on them heavily for
assistance to our residents.” Facilitators
for the CDREE were Jim Strause, Chapter Solutions Manager from
Rochester and Linda de Quintal, Disaster Specialist from New Jersey. Mr. Strause
said, “We already knew that the local Red Cross chapter has a
group of highly dedicated volunteers. We
also learned that the local community is very supportive of the Red
Cross. In this
exercise local partners such as the Allegany County Office of Emergency
Services, the Andover School System, the New York State Police of the
Amity Station, the Allegany County Sheriffs Department, the Village of
Wellsville and their Police Department, and Ham Radio Operators from
across Western New York were ready, willing and able to help the Red
Cross meet the emergency needs of people in the local community. All-in-all, the exercise
was very successful. We learned a lot about the strengths of the local
Red Cross, and I think the local Red Cross learned a lot about
themselves.” Also
assisting in the exercise was Mike D’Antonio who represented
the Amateur Ham Radio Communications Systems.
He had amateur radio operators from across Western
New York on standby for most of the day.
When the day was over he remarked, "I wish the
public could see first hand all of the dedication and hard work that
goes into the training that makes the Red Cross as ready as possible to
do the seemingly impossible." The
exercise was led by Robert Shook of Cuba, the Chapter Disaster
Readiness Officer. He
was assisted by Alison Dickinson of Belmont as Disaster Co-Chair; Beth
Shook of Cuba as Staffing Lead; Barb Brown of Wellsville as Training
& Support Lead; Judy Kosciewicz of Wellsville and Art Couchman
of Scio as Government Liaisons; Jerry Dickinson of Belmont as Logistics
Lead; Nick Abraham of Cuba as Community Liaison; Dale Baker of Bolivar
as Shelter Manager, Bonnie Strait of Wellsville as Feeding Lead; Dick
Wilhelm of Friendship as Disaster Assessment Lead; and Madeleine
Gasdik, Chapter Executive Director.
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112 N Main Street, Wellsville, NY 14895 Ph: (585) 593-1531 Fax: (585) 593-6451 |
