Back Missouri and Illinois are sending supply planes and convoys, food and medical aid, safety officers and rescue teams to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Rescue teams, National Guard units, supply planes and convoys are either already in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi or are expected to arrive soon. An urban search and rescue team based in Boone County performed more than 330 rescues in New Orleans in three days, mostly plucking people from rooftops. Riding boats, team members of Missouri Task Force One “are seeing just hundreds, if not thousands, of people stranded on roofs,” Steve Paulsell, chief of the task force, said Wednesday. The task force was using an Interstate 10 exit ramp as a boat ramp, Paulsell said. National Guard units from Illinois and Missouri were called in to help. In Missouri, two C-130 transport planes flew to the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, with more expected. Also, soldiers with training as military police were expected to help control looting and vandalism in New Orleans. The Illinois National Guard is sending up to 50 vehicles and 300 soldiers. Also, the Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District deployed 17 workers to Louisiana, including a temporary roofing team. More than 30 volunteers with the American Red Cross St. Louis Chapter are heading for the Gulf Coast. A medical team based in St. Louis departed on Sunday. The 35 team members – doctors, nurses and paramedics – were based Wednesday at a hospital in Biloxi, Miss., said Gary Christmann, the team’s deputy commander. The Humane Society of Missouri dispatched eight staffers to aid animals left by fleeing residents. The Boeing Amateur Radio Society, a group of nearly 100 Boeing employees and retirees, activated their radio network to help get messages to the affected areas. Dave Propper, club trustee, said the group received a call for help from a group of 400 students trapped at Xavier University in New Orleans and relayed it to an amateur radio command center in northern Louisiana. Volunteers from the group also fielded calls from St. Louisans searching for family members. Propper said the messages would be forwarded to emergency shelters throughout the Gulf Coast as soon as possible. The group can be reached a 314-234-0297. And Vandalia Bus Lines, based in Caseyville, got a call from the Federal Emergency Management Administration on Wednesday afternoon seeking buses to help evacuate residents from the areas hit by the hurricane. Just a few hours later, nine buses with two drivers each set out for New Orleans, where they were expected to ferry evacuees to Houston, said Dennis Streif, a vice president with the family-owned company. “We were more than happy and willing to do it,” he said. This story may be available for an Adobe Acrobat PDF download. Click on the link below to visit the site download center. If a PDF is available, the file will automatically open in your browser.

Print