Feds to Restrict Volunteers at Disasters

Why do the Feds want to restrict some volunteers from helping at the next disaster? When will the next national disaster happen?

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.