A Disaster Action Team Call in San Martin

On January 10, the Silicon Valley Chapter dispatcher on duty, Barbara Wood received a call from Cal Fire at around 1 pm. A fire had occurred the night before with clients who needed Red Cross assistance.

This DAT call soon became complicated, as we discovered it involved five families and 19 individuals, none of whom spoke English. We opened a shelter (which was used only as a service center when a church group offered housing to some of the clients and insurance paid for lodging for two other families). We received assistance from the County with Spanish translators. In addition, our DAT Captain John Snyder followed one of the clients to the feed store and purchased feed (not found in the DAT manual), for the clients' 20 chickens, 2 ducks, 9 sheep, 6 goats and a dog whose food had been destroyed. Scott Ilse brought food for the families and the DAT responders at the service center.

It was not your everyday DAT call, but one that ended with everyone warm and dry and with a bed for the night! Happily, all of the clients were taken care of under the great care provided by John Snyder, Gordon Sakai and two new California Safe Corps AmeriCorps members, Autumn Kresha and Amel Ali. Our Mass Care Crew, Karl Matzke, Mo Ghandehari, and Tom Busk, pitched in and assisted as well. Client caseworkers followed up during the week with all of the families - with Anita Moser contacting most of them in Spanish. Disaster Health Services also assisted in helping some of the families.