by Ed Pettibone » Wed Sep 23, 2009 12:11 pm
Some of the needed items are; rubber gloves, regular work gloves, Filter mask, Chain saw oil, bleach, tarps, plastic buckets, first aid supplies (band aids, tape & gauze ect).
The trailer is equipped with more or less permanent Chain saws, sledges, shovels, axes, generators ect. There was room for an ATV on the last trip. volunteers are asked to bring hammers, hand saws and hard hats. Steel toed foot wear and sleeping bags. There are some hardhats that are supposed to stay with the trailer. The crews are usually housed in local churches or schools.
I will have to look up contact information, but essentially how it works is that ABCmen of NYS is a reisterd responder, in the event of a disaster the national office of disaster relief contacts our regional director who puts out a call for volunteers and contacting those on an existing list. He also contacts Art Sabourin, a layman at the Clifton Park Center, Baptist Church, who is responsible for this trailer. Art has a crew of fellows from the church who are called The Carpenters Apprentices. (They regularly do heavy maintenance task for the needy and for churches nearby. Last year they screened in the belfry of the Minerva Baptist church to keep out bats that had posed a potential health problem. ) If Art is unavailable there are others of that group to take charge and churches all across the NYS region provide helpers. We also have a large semi type trailer similarly equipped located closer to the center of the state it was used in the cleanup from 9/11 among many other disasters. That trailer also has a half dozen built in bunks and two shower rooms.