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"Illinois state employees took
their skills to where they were needed most -- to the heart of
Hurricane Katrina's wrath," Gov. Blagojevich said. "Working in the
mobile command centers in Louisiana, our state employees helped
victims of the hurricane get the food, housing and health care they
desperately needed. In addition to our state employees, law
enforcers, firefighters and other volunteers who put their own lives
on hold to help others, we also opened our doors at home in Illinois
to more than 6,000 victims displaced by the storm. We should all be
extremely proud of these efforts, both at home and in the Gulf Coast
region,"
Illinois' volunteers helped many families -- including a family
of four living in a Dodge pickup truck -- in a variety of ways: by
locating emergency shelter; contacting the Federal Emergency
Management Agency; and collecting, contributing and donating money,
among other actions. Their efforts led a number of Louisianans,
including Detective Mike Provenzano of the Bogalusa Police
Department, to call them "angels." Provenzano's parting words to
volunteer Floyd Schleyhahn were, "If you guys in Illinois ever find
yourself in the position we're in now, I'm coming -- and I'm
bringing everybody that I can find."
The state of Illinois has been actively assisting hurricane
relief efforts in Illinois and throughout the Gulf Coast. As one
initiative in that effort, the Bureau of Communication and Computer
Services, a part of Central Management Services, last week created
three emergency mobile command posts. More than 25 technicians from
the bureau volunteered to set up the command centers, which consist
of computers powered by mobile generators and equipped with
hard-to-find satellite uplink capabilities. Using broadband
services, including high-speed data transmission to remote areas
underserved by local carriers, the bureau can provide relief command
centers with uplinks for phone and Internet access, and also links
to shelters so displaced individuals can call loved ones.
More than 500 employees from various Illinois state agencies
offered to staff the makeshift Bureau of Communication and Computer
Services command posts to help displaced residents in Louisiana
access assistance and sign up for social services provided by their
state. Of the 500 volunteers, 75 were chosen, said goodbye to their
families, packed up their gear, and received tetanus and hepatitis
immunizations before riding the 750 miles from Springfield to
Louisiana on Sept. 11. The next day they began providing data entry
on the generator-powered computers to catalog and route social
services information for thousands of evacuees in the state of
Louisiana. By the time the last mobile command center closed up shop
in Slidell, La., late Wednesday, they had processed more than 25,000
people for benefits.
"State of Illinois employees responded in overwhelming numbers to
our call for help, and our volunteers set a tremendously inspiring
example by working in rough conditions to provide Hurricane
Katrina's victims access to the services they need to rebuild their
lives," said Paul Campbell, acting director of Central Management
Services. "They represent a great number of state employees who've
taken on added responsibilities, put in long hours and otherwise
gone well beyond the call of duty to help our fellow Americans."
When off duty, the volunteers stayed in makeshift camps at a high
school, a shelter and a water treatment plant. Central Management
Services provided meals, bottled water, cots and bedrolls, and
portable toilets.
According to officials with the Emergency Management Assistance
Compact, which is coordinating requests from all Gulf states for
personnel and equipment, nearly all 50 states have sent volunteers
to Louisiana and Mississippi, totaling more than 41,000 people.
Illinois sent nearly 2,100 -- about 5 percent of the total
volunteers sent by states.
Other Illinois groups that have returned from the Gulf coast are
150 law enforcement officers; 52 Illinois Medical Emergency Response
Team doctors, nurses and paramedics, who manned a field hospital in
Baton Rouge; an 11-member incident management ream, comprised of two
Illinois Emergency Management Agency employees and nine local
emergency management officials, that was directing emergency
management efforts for a six-county area around Gulfport, Miss.; and
an environmental strike team consisting of personnel from the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department
of Public Health, which assisted with drinking water and food safety
issues.
The 800 Illinois National Guard troops that were deployed earlier
this month will remain in Louisiana through the end of September.
Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, Blagojevich
ordered all state agencies to respond in a coordinated manner to
help recovery and cleanup efforts in the Gulf coast and victims
coming into Illinois:
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Illinois has received more than
430 displaced victims from the Gulf Coast states. Individuals
and families arriving on four flights arranged by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency received medical care upon arrival
and were provided by the state with housing in Tinley Park,
Elgin, Alton and Rockford. The American Red Cross estimates an
additional 6,000 displaced victims arrived in Illinois by their
own means.
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The governor launched a Hurricane
Katrina Victim Assistance Hotline, (800) 843-6154, to offer a
broad range of services to the thousands of Hurricane Katrina
victims who made their own way to Illinois, as well as the
individuals, community organizations and local governments that
have taken them in. The toll-free line connects displaced
victims to services available to them, ranging from housing
assistance to medical care to employment. The Illinois
Department of Human Services is coordinating the phone line.
Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to midnight daily. Callers
have one-stop access to all of the Illinois state resources for
Katrina victims -- from emergency food and shelter to more
long-term assistance, like unemployment benefits and food
stamps. Callers can also be connected to local and federal
resources.
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Blagojevich deployed more than
2,000 Illinoisans to help Louisiana respond to the devastation
resulting from Hurricane Katrina. The deployments include nearly
600 firefighters and 800 National Guard troops.
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The Illinois Department of
Employment Security is helping displaced victims process
unemployment claims and facilitating job searches and job
training. The Department of Employment Security and Central
Management Services employees have set up remote computer
stations in the state facilities in Tinley Park, Alton, Elgin
and Rockford, where evacuees are being provided housing.
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The Department of Financial and
Professional Regulation has reached out to state-chartered banks
and thrifts and asked them to provide free check cashing,
eliminate ATM service fees, and help establish checking and
saving accounts for displaced victims now residing in Illinois.
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The Illinois Department of
Revenue has extended filing deadlines until Oct. 31 for
taxpayers who owe Illinois taxes and are from counties damaged
by Hurricane Katrina.
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A total of 134 highly trained law
enforcement officers from state and local agencies were deployed
to Louisiana. These included weapons-of-mass-destruction teams,
tactical response teams, underwater dive teams, a mobile command
post, various all-terrain vehicles, boats and trucks.
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The Illinois Department of
Transportation contributed 500 yards of fencing and 500 stakes
on two lowboys pulled by two semis in the law enforcement
convoy.
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The governor dispatched a total
of 52 members of the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Teams
to Louisiana to assist with care of the massive number of sick
and injured victims from Hurricane Katrina and dispatched an
11-member incident management team to George County, Miss., to
assist local emergency managers during the crisis.
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The governor ordered the state's
public schools to waive residency requirements and enroll any
child displaced by Hurricane Katrina who relocates to live with
family, friends or in a shelter in Illinois. To date, more than
400 children displaced by Hurricane Katrina are enrolled in 46
different Illinois school districts.
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The state's 39 community colleges
will accommodate any Illinois resident displaced from higher
education studies because of the hurricane, while Illinois' 12
public universities will also take in students affected by the
destruction along the Gulf Coast. Students are encouraged to
contact admissions offices at each university to begin an
expedited process to enroll in the institution and to access
university services like financial aid.
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For hurricane victims, the
Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency have offered free camping and removed
length-of-stay requirements at all state parks and historic
sites that offer camping.
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The Illinois Department of
Transportation waived certain transportation rules to allow
standard-sized semis carrying supplies and materials to
Louisiana to be overweight by up to 15,000 pounds when they
travel on Illinois roads. Currently, a standard-sized semi is
allowed to weigh up to 80,000 pounds when traveling through
Illinois. The department will also grant emergency permits to
companies that need to move oversized equipment to the affected
area.
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The Illinois Department of
Corrections made available various items through the Illinois
Emergency Management Agency's emergency procurement system,
including 256,000 half-pints of water, 8,500 blankets, 18,300
clothing items and 2,900 dozen packages of cleaning supplies.
The Department of Corrections has also delivered 3,000 bedrolls
to the Red Cross in Hillside.
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The Illinois Department of
Veterans' Affairs sent toiletries and food to facilities where
displaced victims have been housed and, in collaboration with
several other federal and private agencies, will send food to
the Gulf Coast states.
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The Department of Central
Management Services made available its Bureau of Communication
and Computer Services to help provide communications assistance
to devastated areas. Using broadband services, including
high-speed data transmission to remote areas underserved by
local carriers, the bureau can provide relief command centers
with uplinks for phone and Internet access, and also links to
shelters so displaced individuals can call loved ones.
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The Department of Human Services
sent staff skilled in processing food stamps, to help the U.S.
Department of Agriculture implement a disaster food stamp
program in 25 Louisiana counties.
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The Illinois Department of
Agriculture made the Expo Building on the Illinois State
Fairgrounds available to the Illinois State Police as a staging
area to consolidate personnel, equipment and supplies in
preparation for deployment.
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The Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Public Health
dispatched 12 specialists to Louisiana. The specialists are
members of four environmental health strike teams sent by the
state at the request of the Louisiana Emergency Management
Agency. Their expertise includes drinking water, sewage, food
safety and food salvage. In addition, two IEPA trucks stocked
with emergency response equipment and two IDPH vehicles were
deployed.
[News release from the governor's
office]
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