State agencies ready for Hurricane Rita disaster relief

NASHVILLE — State agencies are already gearing up for a second round of disaster relief, this time due to the expected damage and flooding from Hurricane Rita. Most of the organizations say that although they are having to focus their efforts twofold, the strain on operations is not significant.

Nonprofit organizations like the Salvation Army and the Southern Baptist Convention are acting as first responders with camps and working crews either in the area or moving there now.

Tim Yarbrough with the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief program said they work directly with the Red Cross to provide trained volunteers to staff feeding units.

The Baptist organization already has staging locations in Aquilla, Texas; Cedar Hill, Texas and Kelley Air Force Base.

“This organization has been around for 35 years and we’ve handled some of the largest responses in history,” Yarbrough said. “We’re ready for practically anything. The infastructure is strong.”

The Kentucky/Tennessee division of the Salvation Army just sent three canteens — mobile feeding units — to Camp Hoblitzel, located near Midlothian, Texas.

“Most of our division’s canteens are still in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana,” said spokeswoman Marilyn Markwell. “We won’t remove them unless necessary.”

Markwell said a majority of their relief efforts center around gathering and packaging supplies to be sent to disaster areas.

The Hospital Corporation of America, headquarted in Nashville, has already fully evacuated four hospitals in the Houston area in preparation for Hurricane Rita, which is expected to hit late Friday or early Saturday.

HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said that the company has applied lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina to this evacuation, relying on air transport to move patients to other HCA hospitals.

“Ground transportation routes are becoming clogged very quickly,” Prescott said.

HCA uses an internal temporary staffing organization to handle rapid fluctuations in patient numbers throughout, Prescott said.

“We have a ready pool of staff that we can draw on,” Prescott said. “We think there will be enough staff to go around.”

Four buses and five personnel from the Nashville Metro Transit Authority left Thursday morning for the National Guard checkpoint near Hammond, La. in assist with the evacuation. The Federal Transit Administration sent a request for available buses on Tuesday, according to spokeswoman Patricia Harris-Morehead.

Other agencies are expecting to provide assistance in the days and weeks after the storm moves through.

After Katrina, the Tennessee Valley Authority sent several crews to assess damage, repair broken lines, remove debris and provide diesel fuel. Gil Francis, spokesman, said that it is likely that TVA will get requests to send crews to Texas after the storm passes, even though TVA does not serve the state.

Although American Red Cross shelters across the state have been closing as Katrina evacuees leave, the Nashville chapter is keeping their one remaining shelter open for the possiblity of new evacuees.

“Certainly disaster relief organizations are feeling taxed across the board,” said spokeswoman Amy Hall, “but our mission is to be prepared and we are fully prepared to respond.”