Charlottesville City officials met with local business and community leaders Thursday in an attempt to organize public and private Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Charlottesville.
According to Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch, public contributions from the local area have been augmented by private efforts.
"There are a number of private groups in the City that have already mobilized," Lynch said. "What the City has been doing is working with disaster relief associations such as the United Way to create a coordinated effort."
According to Peter Sweeney, Charlottesville's fire department battalion chief, the City itself has already contributed fire department equipment and personnel.
"Presently, we have a battalion chief that is down there, outside of New Orleans, with a command vehicle that is able to link some of the communications systems that are down," Sweeney said.
The command vehicle, which is capable of providing phone and internet services to emergency personnel, was acquired by the City using a portion of its Homeland Security grant money. The City sent the vehicle in response to a national Federal Emergency Management Agency request for 2,000 fire department personnel.
Battalion Chief Bill Purcell, a 30-year veteran of the department, operates the equipment. Sweeney has been communicating with the battalion chief by e-mail and said Purcell has described the devastation as far worse than the media coverage indicates.
According to Sweeney, Purcell's team is located in the parking lot of a Gulfport, Miss. Walmart, which was flooded with eight feet of water. "Yesterday they found four bodies at their location," Sweeney said.
Purcell is expected to remain on the Gulf Coast for another two weeks. Sweeney said there has been an overwhelming amount of volunteer support within the department.
"I think it's what you absolutely expect from fire service providers," he said. "Ingrained in their lifestyle is a desire to help."
Three additional two-man teams will be sent from the City and Albemarle County in the next two days and will remain for a 30-day period.
Lynch cited Charlottesville resident Oliver Kuttner, a local bus driver, as an example of private action helping those impacted by the hurricane. Kuttner, who normally drives a route to New York, will leave Tuesday to deliver food and supplies to a community in Mississippi.
Despite these immediate responses of aid, Lynch said Charlottesville's role in helping hurricane victims will not end soon, but will continue when those displaced by the hurricane begin to look for new permanent homes.
"I think what the City's response will be is thinking about the longer term and how we deal with people that are in refugee camps right now," he said. "I think that would be where the City will be most involved"
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