Heavy rains and damaged infrastructure continue to slow down earthquake recovery operations.
Jim Popkin
October 8, 2007

Jim Popkin, Contributing Author.

While the Harrisburg National Weather Service forecasts the continuance of heavy rains throughout southern and central Pennsylvania for today and Thursday, the 300+ communities most affected are dealing with overpopulated emergency shelters, utility outages with sporadic service, blocked roads, collapsed bridges, and ongoing fear caused by sinkholes and dozens of unstable dams. Local, regional, and state officials agree that logistics remain the biggest issue.

Too Much of the Wrong Kind of Help

EMS, Fire, Rescue, and HAZMAT units are over-taxed because many of the response and recovery personnel, along with much of the equipment is stuck supporting operations in and near Pittsburgh. Amateur radio and Civil Air Patrol have stepped up support efforts, along with hundreds of volunteers, but the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) has raised another issue—too much of the wrong kind of help. According to one official, “these communities need the experts and managers who are trained in disaster recovery to ensure that volunteers are utilize appropriately and activities are managed in a safe manner in a fashion consistent with National Incident Management System-Incident Command System (NIMS-ICS).”

Pictures of Earthquake Damage:

Resources for PA Residents:

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=11408 (post earthquake safety)

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/hazards/es11.pdf (PA sinkhole report)

http://www.dot7.state.pa.us/TravelerInformation (current travel info)

Rinda Walker from Lancaster contributed to this story.