Martin, I hear you loud and clear. We too have been hung up in the bureaucratic boondoggle, mainly at the local level.

Last Tuesday, I contacted our Swiftwater Task Force Coordinator, to see if we were planning on responding or at the very least determining what resources would be available for deployment, if requested. He was ill and could work on anything, he told me to contact our County Emergency Manager (CEM) and Department of Fire/rescue Services (DFRS) Volunteer Coordinator, as any requests would come from FEMA, through MEMA (Maryland Emergency Management Agency) to the county DFRS and CEM. I called him and had to leave a voice mail message, to this date he has never called me back. I did receive back a call form our DFRS Vol. Coord, he said that any requests for assistance would be forwarded to all of the Chiefs and Specialty Team Leaders. He said no plans were currently been made or should be made to determine available resources unless and until a formal request came thorough.

With that, we made our planned trip to LI to visit relatives. Meanwhile I received an e-mail from the National Assoc for Search and Rescue (their e-news letter) asking Swiftwater Teams and others (EMS, Fire)to register with the National clearing house and to contact the USCG and LO Gov. Office with available resources. I called our Team Leader and provided him the information. He contacted the DFRS Vol. Coord. and gave him this information along with my recommendation to poll area Fire Companies to find out if there were deployable resources available, if requested. He was told that no resourcing would be performed unless and until the request came through and then only after they (DFRS) met with the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to formalize any request for support.

By not resourcing our county?s deployable assets and not registering them on one of various registries, they ensured we would never be called.

DFRS and local EMA is first meeting today with the BOCC to discuss what liabilities, personal health monitoring requirements and general impact on community assets if a request came through and they decided to support any effort to deploy personal/equipment. In my mind, this should have been done last Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, but they dragged their feet on this one long enough, so the issue will become moot.

I do not get mad that often, but I am fuming <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />and truly ashamed of our local DFRS and County Government for their inaction during this crisis.

Pete