Help in the wake of disaster

Published 11:34 am Tuesday, December 18, 2012

When Sheila Gaquin took a Red Cross training course last year, she never imagined it would lead to 10-hour days of delivering supplies to Long Island home owners.

After Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast in late October, volunteers across the country were called in to help with relief efforts. Gaquin, who initially became part of the Red Cross to help with disaster planning for her Deer Harbor neighborhood, didn’t take long to say yes when she received the call.

“It was mind boggling – there were miles and miles of destruction,” she said. “The winds weren’t the issue, it was the water … it’s low elevation there, and sand buried cars and bikes – all you could see were the handle bars. In New York, 350,000 homes were damaged beyond repair.”

Gaquin says one neighborhood burned down after salt water got into the electrical units. Firefighters stood chest deep in water while putting out the flames. There was also humor amid some of the destruction. One family put a sign beneath a vessel sticking straight of their house: “Thanks, Sandy. I always wanted a boat.”

The hurricane impacted 24 states from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin. The bulk of the damage occurred in New Jersey and New York. The storm also devastated portions of the Caribbean.

When she flew out on Nov. 16, Gaquin assumed she would be assigned to a shelter, which are stop gap measures until displaced people can find more permanent housing. By the time she arrived, most of the shelters were packed up, so she was appointed to “bulk distribution.”

Every day at 6 a.m., volunteers would get into school busses and drive two hours out of Manhattan. They would then load up trucks with supplies like food, blankets, coolers, diapers and bleach – an item that Gaquin says became “like gold” because it could remove mold from the massive water damage. She would drive through Long Island neighborhoods and hand out items. Gaquin wouldn’t be back in her New York hotel room until after nightfall, at which point she collapsed into bed.

Most of the residents in the Long Island communities were working class folks who Gaquin says “never accepted help for anything.”

“Their wealth is invested in their home, so it’s really devastating,” Gaquin said. “The hardest part was seeing older people who had worked so hard and now have to start all over at that stage of life.”

Gaquin, who taught school on Shaw Island until her retirement in 2007, says the work was exhausting but gratifying. Her husband, Howard Barbour, is now considering Red Cross training as well.

“It’s an array of retirees,” Gaquin said of the response effort. “There were definitely young people but also a lot of grey hair.  There were volunteers from all over the world – Canada, Japan, Israel – and all over the United States. Red Cross partners with local relief groups, so there isn’t any wasted time. We all felt like we really contributed.”

Four volunteers from San Juan Island were also deployed, but Gaquin never saw them. The Islands Chapter of the Red Cross serves Fidalgo, Whidbey and the San Juans. Each year they respond to nearly 20 local disasters and train around 2,000 residents. Gaquin might return to the East Coast after the holidays. The work is 100 percent volunteer, but the organization pays for transportation and food.

“This has been the biggest response Red Cross has ever had,” she said. “Relief efforts will continue as long as people are in need.”