Preparing for the worst
Civil Air Patrol, Red Cross practice responding to storm disaster
Melissa Sieminski’s roots are in Scituate, but when the Red Cross volunteer gets a call to help others, her home is wherever disaster strikes, for two or three weeks at a time.
A self-described “Katrina baby,’’ Sieminski has hit the road on four major national deployments since she watched the horror of the September 2005 storm that leveled New Orleans. It was the stranded, hungry, and exhausted residents waving “Help me’’ signs from rooftops that brought her to assist.
“The first year I did it, I felt Iike I led a secret life,’’ she said. “I got the calls and I left. It has changed my whole perspective. And my heart swells that I am able to help people, because I never saw myself in this role.’’
Sieminski’s will to serve is also focused on the South Shore, where she and dozens of other volunteers gathered last Sunday at the Massachusetts Civil Air Patrol headquarters at Plymouth Airport for a joint effort to ramp up disaster preparedness.
The drill, which was a stand-alone exercise specific to the densely settled coastal communities, helped Civil Air Patrol and American Red Cross volunteers hone the skills they’d need to deal with real devastation.
The eight-hour exercise, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., was not the first time the two agencies have worked together but was the largest gathering to date, officials in both organizations said. The costs for training the volunteers, materials, food, and vehicle support were shared equally.
As the three dozen volunteers gathered in Plymouth early Sunday, some having already traveled across the state, foreboding gray skies that threatened to open overnight finally did, yielding a blast of cold rain.
“Welcome to beautiful, sunny Plymouth,’’ joked Civil Air Patrol Lieutenant Colonel William H. Meskill, as a misty chill enveloped the small Air Patrol building.
“The first requirement for safety is the fact that everyone is a safety officer,’’ he said to his volunteers. “This is a risk assessment. This afternoon, I want you to think about what you do before you do it.’’
“We’re here to learn to interact with the Red Cross,’’ he added. “I want you to pretend that the weather is 100 percent worse.’’
Kevin Ghiz drove in from Webster, where he and his daughter, Kaitlyn, 14, are part of the Goddard Cadet Squadron 007, a local arm of the Civil Air Patrol. As a result of her membership, Kaitlyn has already gone up in a Blackhawk helicopter, flown in an F-14 fighter plane simulator, and plans to learn to pilot a plane when she is old enough.
A nine-year Army helicopter pilot himself, Ghiz said he happily does whatever the Civil Air Patrol, or CAP, which is the Air Force’s civilian volunteer auxiliary, asks of him. When the phone rings, no matter the hour, you go if you can, he said.
An intermittent rain grounded the air portion of the exercise that had drawn pilots from around the state. That disappointment aside, the uncooperative weather lent an air of realism to the exercise that, in a true storm, would have pitted pilots, ground volunteers, and others against the dangerous, often fatal, forces of nature.
As the volunteers milled with coffee and doughnuts before the morning briefing, Jerry Vinokur, a CAP major, explained his participation as a service “to my community, state, and nation.’’
If a hurricane hit, Vinokur said, he and others would take to the sky for search and rescue while the Red Cross and other agencies would coordinate from the ground.
Marshfield resident Richard Bedgio, a retiree from Sears who just completed his 12th national deployment with the Red Cross, was also moved into action by the devastation of Katrina. Last weekend, he was happy to give a little back to his hometown.
Helping others is good medicine, Bedgio said, especially for those devastated by loss. “Their whole lives have been disrupted, and just knowing there is someone there to help makes a difference.’’
He and other volunteers making up eight four-member teams fanned out in Duxbury, Marshfield, and Scituate, looking to log “storm’’ damage in beach neighborhoods.
If it were a real disaster, help in all forms, whether shelter, food, or clothing, would be provided once the assessment of need is made.
But here, under the faux scenario, assessors worked on their observation skills, designating a home with a black roof, for example, to have been destroyed by the storm. A gray roof would have sustained minor damage, brown would have major damage, and white only slightly affected, according to the plan. A backyard shed equaled the points for a fallen tree, while a swimming pool was counted as a flooded property.
The point of collecting such information is to be able to discern the level of need for residents left vulnerable by such a storm, volunteer leaders said. Upon their return to Plymouth, the crews would compare notes and brainstorm about how best to serve the needy under the extreme scenario.
The dramatic exercise startled a few people. In the Rexhame section of Marshfield, residents who usually spend their Sunday mornings sipping coffee or sleeping in were glued to their windows and doorways as a parade of rain-soaked disaster relief squads clad in typical military camouflage outfits conducted the simulated assessment.
“Are we being invaded?’’ a man yelled from his Abbey Street yard, as one of two patrols inched past his home, peering into backyards and up to rooftops.
“This is a training exercise,’’ said Bedgio, the team leader for that unit, as he stopped for a moment to chat and ease concerns.
Heidi Schneider combed the area with Bedgio, Connor O’Dwyer, 15, of Plymouth, and Thomas Melucci, 24, of Middleborough. Other teams spread out in Duxbury along Powder Point Avenue and King Caesar Road and in Scituate in the area around Hatherly Road.
Schneider, 15, shared her dream of being a pilot as she walked. “I have learned so many great leadership skills from the Civil Air Patrol,’’ she said. “It’s opening up the possibility of me going into the Air Force.’’
O’Dwyer said he is putting what he’s learning in the Air Patrol toward a future in politics, while Melucci said he volunteers because his life is good and he wants to pass on that good fortune to others.
The Red Cross director of disaster assessment, Rick Young, said he was grateful for Sunday’s turnout and the fact that helping people to help themselves before a hurricane hits is an important and achievable goal as well.
“The more people are prepared, the easier our job is,’’ Young said.
Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
