First Responder: Greg Conklin
We spoke to Greg,Vice President and First Responder of Operation Love Thy Neighbor to get an update on the situation in Americus, GA that suffered a F3 tornado on March 1, 2007. With a population of less than 20,000, 173 homes were completely destroyed, another 200 severely damaged and tragically 2 deaths resulted from the hurricane in Americus.
Greg has many years of experience working with natural disasters,
including hurricanes, and fires both nationwide and in other countries.
He has military experience and was a police officer so he has
experienced these types of situations from many different perspectives.
Several of the directors of KA met him when we were in Moss Point
for the Thanksgiving Dinner and we even got a chance to tour the
facility Operation LoveThy Neighbor has turned into a volunteer housing
center. Of course, Greg has been working tirelessly since the
hurricanes in Mississippi, Lousiana, and Alabama on many different
projects assisting with relief efforts.
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to having some generous donors, KA was able to donate money to Greg to use as he saw fit during his mission in the tornado zones. Since we are a "virtual" organization, this is how we felt we could help the most---to provide monetary support to those that are on site and let Greg do what he does best. His reports and updates will give us information to continue to help after the first responder relief groups have left. Greg talks to the locals and accesses their needs and works with the other agencies to try to provide resource coordination and any other jobs he can do to help. After he does this all day, he spends the evening and early morning hours working in a kitchen that is feeding emergency personnel and first responders. So we wonder when does he sleep? |
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Greg says that the local hospital, Sumter Regional Hospital, took a direct hit and was severely damaged. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt and the staff has set up two tents in a field as a temporary 50 bed emergency room. The staffis able to see 20-30 people daily and they have even delivered a baby there. They have a operating room and portable MRI set up and are hopeful they will be able to rebuild. Sumter Regional is also the largest employer in Americus. |
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are lucky to have input from someone like Greg who is there and has the knowledge to interpret the situation accurately. We asked Greg what his overall impression of the situation was two weeks later. He feels that while the faith based and grassroot groups have become better organized and are doing a great job, he still sees some of the problems that were encountered during Katrina and Rita. According to Greg, he sees a lack of communication between the agencies and the locals and says information was slow in being publicized to the people. He notes that FEMA and Red Cross are there and doing intake but many people don't know the details about where to go. Greg mentioned that while checking in with the groups and asking how he could help, that it was difficult to get information. He does have high praise for local law enforcement and assistance that has come from other counties and feels that the situation is being handled extremely well and professionally. Greg is currently waiting on repairs to his trusty truck. He has put 30,000 miles on the truck and hauled tons of supplies in the last year so he is not surprised repairs are needed. He mentioned that the hospital is looking for donations of money and hand sanitizer. He will continue to let us know how we can continue to help the community. Please take a minute to look at the pictures Greg has sent and some from a local station WISK. If anyone is interested in helping this area, please contact us at info@katrinasangels.org and together we can continue our tradition of helping communities after disasters. Read more about Greg and Operation Love Thy Neighbor at his site. Return to Katrina's Angels Front Page |