Volunteer group aims to ease hurricane evacuations

NEW ORLEANS — Laine Fry had her own car, understanding friends and a dry, safe evacuation haven as Hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans in the summer of 2008.

She remembers being comfortable in her exile — disturbingly so.

"I couldn't imagine being the parent of a young child, not having my own car, not knowing where to go," she recalled.

About that time, New Orleans' top emergency official, Col. Jerry Sneed, was overseeing the city's first major evacuation since the chaos of Hurricane Katrina — when tens of thousands were stranded in the sweltering, flooded city for days in 2005. Unlike then, the city and state were prepared with transportation out of the city and shelter space out of harm's way. But there were still unknowns to deal with.

"We weren't quite sure that we'd get the number of volunteers that we'd need," Sneed said of the Gustav evacuation. "And they showed up. We had more than enough volunteers."

So many that it was hard at times to know where to send them and how to organize them.

"There wasn't a playbook," said Robert Fogarty, who was an Americorps volunteer assigned to City Hall at the time.

And so Evacuteer.org was born, an all-volunteer organization that Fogarty founded and now signs up, organizes, and trains volunteers to help with government evacuations of people who don't or can't leave on their own. Twice-weekly training sessions begin in late spring and last into July as the Gulf Coast heads into the peak of hurricane season.

Fry, now the head of operations for the group, said officials try to recruit about 500 volunteers — either individuals or members of other organizations with other missions that are ready to switch gears when an evacuation is triggered.

"Our biggest list is actually faith-based groups, nonprofit organizations that are doing other work," Fogarty said. "Their normal missions are rebuilding or faith-based work."

Evacuteer.org prepares volunteers for a variety of roles, from disseminating information to phone callers about transportation, pickup points and help for the disabled, to helping hand out water and carrying luggage at evacuation pick-up points around the city, Fry said.