Issue date: 10/15/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo Robbie Abelon, senior government and history major, catches up on classes after [Click to enlarge]

Sacramento State student Robbie Abelon spent the beginning of the fall semester assisting in hurricane disaster relief and preparation work in Texas and Louisiana.

As a result of working on Hurricanes Ike and Gustav for the Red Cross in August and September, Abelon, senior government and history major, missed the first three weeks of school.

While working Hurricane Gustav response, he spent eight days in the Dallas Convention Center with 1,100 hurricane evacuees, many of whom were from the New Orleans areas.

Abelon had a similar experience after Hurricane Katrina, where he was in a Baton Rouge recreation center, coordinating disaster relief efforts there as well.

At the convention center, Abelon took care of the evacuees on a personal level while other Red Cross workers made sure they had enough food for their stay. He said he felt compelled to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and joined the Sacramento Sierra Chapter of the American Red Cross.

During his latest disaster relief mission, showers were hard to come by, and people constantly surrounded him. Whether taking carpools with staff members, or working on the convention center floor with hundreds of evacuees, Abelon said it was tough to adjust to these changes in his life.

His most difficult adjustments came after he returned home. Abelon could finally get more than five hours of sleep and have a steady supply of water and electricity. While doing disaster relief work, these amenities were hard, if not impossible, to come by.

"I could take a shower again," Abelon said. "A lot of the minor things that people take for granted, it was really tough over there in the disaster area… those are luxuries that are hard to come by."

His academic adjustment was just as difficult. Government professor Mignon Gregg said she allowed him to come into class later and to catch up on his assignments. All his other professors said he could get extensions on his assignments and informed him of what he needed to catch up on. He is still working to get on pace in his classes.

"It looks like I'm almost caught up," Abelon said. "Still a lot of reading to do with online classes."

American Red Cross Disaster Relief Coordinator David Wiltse said Abelon came in to volunteer after Katrina and has done excellent work on hurricane preparation in Texas and Louisiana before and during Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. During Katrina, Wiltse said that while more than 600 volunteers from the Sacramento area were sent to the gulf region after Katrina, only 78 people were sent during Ike and Gustav.

Abelon drew comparisons with his 2005 mission to his 2008 experience. "People knew the procedures of what to do and that's both on the evacuees and the people who helped them," he said. "The evacuees were more prepped now than they were three years ago because they knew what to do in case of a hurricane, who to talk to, who to contact, and when they can get back home."

With Hurricane Katrina, however, Abelon said the evacuees had no idea how to respond since New Orleans had not been hit with a hurricane since Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Disaster relief plans were not implemented until after the hurricane hit; as a result, volunteers were overwhelmed.

"With Katrina and Rita, people stayed in the shelters for months at a time," Abelon said. "After Gustav, we [cleared] the convention center in a week. The convention center was packed with [people from] New Orleans and the parishes around it. One week later, it was all cleared up because people knew what to do."

Abelon's classmates, for the most part, were curious as to how the Red Cross would "send a kid from Sacramento to Louisiana and Texas," he said. Other classmates wanted to get involved and see what it was like. Particularly, they wanted to know the difference between television portrayals and the actual conditions on the ground.

"Others were like amazed that I could skip out for three and a half weeks, be in horrible conditions, and come back okay. Then do it again three years later without hesitation. A lot of folks thought that was unique." Abelon said.

Ben Schilter can be reached at bschilter@statehornet.com

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