Nov. 18--Several first responders from South Mississippi have made their way to the Hurricane Sandy disaster zone in the Northeast. More specifically, they're in Monmouth County, N.J., one of the most affected areas on the East Coast.
First responders say what they have seen so far is a reminder of the natural disaster the Mississippi Coast endured just a short seven years ago.
A team from Mississippi arrived Nov. 4 in Monmouth County to begin their two-week deployment. Doug Adams, public affairs sergeant for the Pascagoula Police Department, said some first responders will stay longer and more help will be sent to the Northeast for an additional two weeks, as requested by emergency officials in New Jersey.
"It's a natural reaction for all of us to compare the two storms," Harrison County Fire Marshal Pat Sullivan said. "There are some areas of devastation that were just as severe as Katrina. There's whole blocks of beach homes and beach property that were completely destroyed and washed away. We've heard time and time again the residents up here say this is the worstthey've ever seen in their lifetime here in this community. You get the feeling from them that this was as bad as Katrina. "
Terry Jackson, deputy director for Jackson County Emergency Management, said the team's main concern right now is to help first responders and residents move from the response phase and into the recovery phase, but there is still a lot of work to do, including getting displaced residents into temporary housing.
"This is their Katrina and we are just getting started," Jackson said. "It's going to take years and in some cases it'll be just like it is on the Coast -- it'll never be the same."
"The first responders and how they were doing was a big concern of ours because, what I experience, first responders deal with a lot of stress and don't see that that stress is coming on," Jackson said. "So we kind of came in and gave them a leaning post, so to speak, for the first 24 to 48 hours so we could figure out what-all they did have going on and support them any way we could."
MEMA Public Information Officer Greg Flynn said Monmouth County has 53 towns and 650,000 residents, which increased the magnitude of Sandy.
Union Beach was one of the hardest-hit areas that also has the lowest income. Three hundred homes have already been condemned. He added thousands of residents need long-term housing.
Raven James of the Stone County Emergency Management Agency said having long-term goals is key in the recovery process.
"We are really trying to establish organization," James said. "Now, when they're getting out of response and into recovery, we're trying to help them establish long-term goals."
One of the things so eerily similar to South Mississippi is this is a beach town and it is heavily dependent on the beach and on tourism. Sullivan believes one of the reasons a South Mississippi team was sent to the Monmouth area of New Jersey was because of its similarities to the Gulf Coast.
Sullivan said the shoreline has resort hotels, condos and marinas with hundreds of boats for work and recreation and the area has much more to rebuild than just homes.
"They also have to rebuild their tourism in order to sustain the economy," he said.
Team members said their efforts will continue as long as their presence is requested in the area.
Four Biloxi firefighters left for Staten Island on Friday to assist in Sandy recovery
"We'll be gutting homes and getting them ready for permanent repairs. We'll also be carrying up cleaning supplies, including 50 five-gallon buckets of material that was donated by the Methodist church on Popp's Ferry Road; personal hygiene kits; and Lowe's donated $500 in supplies," Biloxi Battalion Chief Joe Boney said in a news release on the city's website. "The community outpouring so far has been great."
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