Posted on 09/01/2007 11:46:43 AM PDT by ZGuy
Retiree Gene O'Brien hurried to the World Trade Center site after Sept. 11, 2001, as a volunteer helping to shuttle supplies to police and fire workers. Some days, his only ID to get into the disaster site was a tattoo on his forearm.
"A couple times I showed them my Marine tattoo, and they said go ahead," recalled O'Brien, adding that he and other volunteers also came up with their own makeshift identification cards.
"We didn't forge anything, we just made them up with our own pictures and at one point we copied a UPC code off a Pepsi can and they were as good as gold," said the Scarsdale resident.
It might not be so easy the next time disaster strikes.
In an effort to provide better control and coordination, the federal government is launching an ambitious ID program for rescue workers to keep everyday people from swarming to a disaster scene. A prototype of the new first responder identification card is already being issued to fire and police personnel in the Washington, D.C., area.
Proponents say the system will get professionals on scene quicker and keep untrained volunteers from making tough work more difficult.
But they also know it is a touchy subject, particularly for those devoted to helping in moments of crisis.
"Wow, how in the world do we say this without love and respect in our hearts?" said deputy assistant U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson.
"Everybody wants to come to the fight, so to speak, and no one wants to step back and say 'No, I can't do this.' The final coup de grace was the World Trade Center. Hundreds came that were never asked," Dickinson said. "Good intentions, good hearts, and it was extremely difficult for the fire department and the other departments to deal with them."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency came up with the idea after the World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when countless Americans rushed to help — unasked, undirected, and sometimes unwanted.
Many of those volunteers angrily dispute the notion they were a burden. They insist that in many instances they were able to deliver respirators, hard hats, and protective boots to workers when no one else seemed able.
Ground zero volunteer Rhonda Shearer and her daughter launched a fast-moving supply system that bypassed regular channels, often infuriating city officials.
Even as she delivered box trucks packed with supplies over months of recovery work, she increasingly ended up in a cat-and-mouse game with New York City's police and emergency management agency.
Shearer, 53, said the experience convinced that agencies are ill-equipped to handle major disasters — but don't want outsiders pointing out their failings.
Similar frustrations arose after Katrina, when people were shocked that the government struggled to take basic supplies such as water to the worst areas.
"They're more worried about keeping volunteers out than doing an analysis of what really went wrong," said Shearer. "Independent citizens need to be involved, where we have no ax to grind or cross to bear. But we will tell the truth, and we will tell what we see and bear witness to the incompetence."
Dickinson, the federal fire official, said the government is not trying to discourage volunteers, but he thinks there should come a time, within a few days of a disaster, when civilians step back and let the professionals take control.
Supporters say the ID cards could be checked at a disaster area with a card-reader device and used to verify a person's unique skills. For example, if police officers have been trained to handle hazardous materials, officials at the scene could deploy them to an area where their skills would be best put to use.
For reasons ranging from general safety to protection from lawsuits, construction and demolition companies want to see a disaster ID card program succeed.
Mike Taylor, executive director of the National Demolition Association, said his industry is talking with aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about putting it in place in his state.
"If California goes ahead and does that, it will flow across the country. This is a really smart idea by someone in the Bush administration to be able to control access to the site and frankly, make sure there are no untrained people," said Taylor. "If somebody goes running down to the site, you have to stop and ask them, wait, are they certified to do this work?"
Why not require Davis-Bacon wages too?
We are the government. We know best.
Official-Government-Approved-Volunteer
That’s kind of like TSA, isn’t it?
Darn, they want their hands in everything!
Oh. My. God. Now, because you are a government employee, you are more qualified to do disaster work? WTF? I’ve seen so many episodes of incompetent governenment workers whose main priority is to pretend they are competent. Just last night, paramedics came to get the body of my neighbor who’d apparently had a stroke. Paramedics were doing a “pinkie code,” i.e. pushing very lightly on her chest in a semblance of CPR, without actually doing CPR. My neighbor’s abdomen was distended, an obvious result of intragastric intubation. I, being a doctor, tried to help, and was immediately pushed away by several large paramedics who KNEW that I was a physician.
Recently, I came upon an auto accident. The passengers were injured, with CENTRAL neck tenderness (i.e. tenderness over the vertebrae), and therefore needed to have a backboard / c-collar placed until cervical X rays were done. The fire department, knowing that I was a physician, hustled me away, and took the passengers (no C collar no neck brace) to the ER for evaluation.
Bottom line? In my field (medicine) I am 100% positive that government workers are a threat to the public, and that they, in some cases, are more concerned with not letting the public know how incompetent they are rather than with doing their jobs correctly.
Ordinary Americans are the heroes. Not to take away from what they do, but firemen and police are paid to help people when they’re around.
Why take away a huge source of manpower?
OSHA should be involved in every disaster scene and hand out citations for dangerous working conditions.
I say we need a cabinet level position and another entire dept to handle this.
I can’t blame the government on this one, considering the lawsuits it faced by everyone within 100 miles of Ground Zero (it seemed) in the aftermath of 9/11.
It was volunteers who help the firemen rescue many folks from the Mississippi after the bridge collapse.
I could hear it now, sorry you have to drown because we are not trained by the Federal Government.
Of the roughly 10 billion good ideas the might be implemented to improve federal emergency performance at the sites of disasters, how in hell does something like this get to the top of the list. Obviously a Government bureaucrat was in charge of deciding which ideas had the most merit.
Morons.
we need another investigation, and more sensationalized press.....and more ways to blame bush....
Proponents say the system will get professionals on scene quicker and keep untrained volunteers from making tough work more difficult.
Ask the people who were saved about “keeping the untrained volunteers from making touch work more difficult.” What a disgraceful statement that is. It won’t matter anyway. If we have a next disaster volunteers will do their jobs helping those who need it no matter who says what! Seems everyone is forgetting about good ole American ingenuity!!!!
Make sure you check IDs when someone is trying to save a life but it’s OK to not have to show an ID in other places or...what the heck...just walk on over the border!!!
Wait a minute! Is this the same government that protects our borders?
Sounds like goverment BullS*** to me
Why in the world would they want witnesses around who cannot be controlled?
From that pov, it’s a great idea.
When we had the small flooding in Stamford, CT earlier in the year, there were some National Guard guys carrying people out of homes that I assume were flooded. I wanted to go over and help, but I was standing with two firemen who wouldn’t let me go there. Now if I saw a dog or child going with the flow of the water down the street, I would have run over there.
The government firefighter bureaucracy was really annoyed that non-gov't folks had actually done something to protect themselves, rather than letting their town burn.
I agree with the government on this one. We should have had someone inspecting the credentials of those passengers on Flight 93 on Sept 11 to prevent them from responding in that emergency. Their lack of training and unprofessionalism saved thousands of lives. We cannot let this continue in this country.
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