A professional membership organization serving Pennsylvania's law enforcement executives

KATRINA RELIEF TRIP

By:  Dick Hammon
        Accreditation Program Coordinator

The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association (PCPA) received many emails from police and sheriff agencies in the South requesting equipment for their departments who had lost everything during Hurricane Katrina.

The Executive Director, Amy Corl, immediately contacted the Executive Board of PCPA and encouraged them to support us providing what assistance we could to those requests. The question wasn’t would we help, but how.  A call to all member agencies was put out for donations of equipment for our brothers and sisters who were devastated by this storm.  We also asked the public to donate to this very worthy cause.

We determined that one of the worst hit agencies was the sheriffs department in St. Bernard Parish, and it was the men and women of that department we decided to reach out to.

The members and public came through with enough donated equipment and supplies to completely fill our 16 foot box trailer and the bed of the truck that Mr. Henry Lenker of H & N Nursery in Mechanicsburg so graciously donated to us for this relief trip.

We then thought maybe it would be nice if we would take some food items along to have a little barbeque for the officers we were taking these supplies to.  With the help of Mr. Scot Karns of Karns Food Stores, we took enough hamburger and hot dogs, along with all the fixings, to feed 125 officers.

On Wednesday, September 14, 2005 at 2:00 p.m., Dick Hammon, Accreditation Program Coordinator, Annika Shoemaker, Administrative Executive Assistant and Marcel Tassin, a Louisiana native and friend of Dick and Annika, left Headquarters for St. Bernard Parish to deliver these much needed supplies.  After driving through the night and getting stuck in traffic at an accident scene, we arrived in St Bernard Parish at approximately noon on Thursday. When we arrived the temperature was 95 degrees and the dew point was 80.

The equipment and supplies were taken to an old loading dock along the Mississippi River that the Sheriff’s Office was using as their supply point.  Much of the equipment was put onto the street for officers as we were unloading. The officers were very thankful for everything we took and thanked us numerous times for our assistance.

We then took the food supplies to an area up river a couple miles where about 100 officers, who had lost everything they owned in the hurricane, live on a little tourist dinner cruise boat.  Their “kitchen” area was located in an old warehouse on the dock beside the boat they were staying in.  There was no refrigeration, except for one very small refrigerator on the boat that was shared by all.

Grills were set up and the barbeque was started for these officers who are working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their “kitchen” facilities were poor at best, but nobody complained, and those who were able got their fill of Pennsylvania meats and other goodies.  At approximately 6:00 p.m. we packed our gear and headed out of town.  On the way out we had a chance to meet with the Sheriff of St Bernard Parish, and he expressed his appreciation for what we had done and the concern that PCPA had shown for his men.  He was truly touched by all the equipment he had received, in fact a couple of the men with him already were issued supplies that we had unloaded just hours earlier.

With that we headed North, through New Orleans, past the Superdome and on to Baton Rouge where Marcel had made arrangements for accommodations with Jeff Hoffman, Karen Tassin and their great kids Jon and Katie (Marcel’s sister and brother in-law).  Jeff and Karen provided us with some real southern hospitably, and a few neighbors had stopped in to thank us for our efforts.  A good night sleep and breakfast in the morning put us on the road back to Pennsylvania at 7:30 a.m..  Nineteen hours later we pulled into Headquarters, a little weary, but feeling good that the trip of 2,525 miles was well worth it.

We continue to think of those men and women that are living and working in what any of us would call a hell hole.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they continue their labor of love for their community.

The following are Annika’s thoughts on our trip:

Hey there everyone, we got home safe and sound from Louisiana.  The trip was a success and everyone there is so thankful for all they have received.  In fact, there was a voicemail from them this weekend thanking us very much.  What I saw down there is something I pray no one I love ever has to live through.  It took us 23 hours to get down there and 19 hours to get home.  We went directly to St. Bernard Parish, which was one of the hardest hit areas, after passing through 3 military checkpoints.  These pictures don't do it justice.  The smell was that of oil, toxins and death.  I saw several animals wandering lost, confused, and not understanding why everyone was walking around and ignoring them.  Being the animal lover I am, this definitely made me cry.  I was told that because of the oil spills in this area the animals were diseased because they drank the water and most will have to be killed.  We saw holes in the roofs where people were hopefully rescued from, and the spray paint on the houses that had been checked for survivors or lack thereof.  The ground is very toxic and St. Bernard will probably be bulldozed when it is all said and done.  All the officers are living on a dinner boat on the Mississippi because they have all lost their homes.  Most say they will not stay in the area when all is said and done.  Many rode out the storm on the third floor of the courthouse for 5 days until rescued.  Waters rose to about 15 feet they said. While there we cooked burgers and dogs for them on the grill and got to talk to some of them which was nice.

I really swayed back and forth on wanting to go or not.  I am glad I did and will never forget it.  All I wanted to do was go home and hug my husband and dog and thank God for all I have.  Please keep these guys in your thoughts and prayers and please don’t ever take anything for granted because in just a split second it can all be gone!!  I will close because I am getting teary as I write this.

Scroll down to view photos of the trip.