Posted by Zaz Hollander (165.247.9.247) on September 27, 2001 at 18:06:16:
By Zaz Hollander
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: September 27, 2001)
A team of Alaska medical workers will fly to New York City on Sunday to assist recovery workers clearing the rubble left by the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center and searching for the remains of more than 6,000 people still missing.
All volunteers, the 44-member team deployed by the federal government includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists,
paramedics and emergency medical technicians.
The so-called Alaska-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team represents hospitals and private practices around the state, though most of
the volunteers work in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Borough.
The group was supposed to fly out Oct. 10 for a two-week deployment but got new orders Wednesday morning to ship out Sunday,
according to Sue Brogan, spokeswoman for AK-1 DMAT.
The team will provide medical care for crews aiding in the recovery effort, everything from treating lacerations to washing dust out of
people's eyes, Brogan said. The crew is part of a national network that provides emergency services during disasters.
Another Alaskan is already in the city.
Jim Harris, a program manager with the Alaska Division of Emergency Services, usually doles out grant money to disaster victims. Harris
was called to lower Manhattan on Sept. 19 to coordinate city, state and federal assistance programs.
Harris and a team of disaster managers from other states are working out of a field office about 40 blocks from the towers, helping
smooth the flow of programs like unemployment and insurance benefits and temporary housing for the thousands of displaced
residents and workers.
A sober view of a still-smoldering skyline without the trademark towers greeted Harris as he landed aboard a Blackhawk helicopter last
week, Harris said by telephone Wednesday afternoon.
He had just returned from his first visit to the site of the attacks, a place so profoundly wrecked that "even when you see it, it's hard to
understand it."
Nonetheless, children are playing in a neighborhood park nearby and the city's famous traffic clogs the streets again, Harris said.
"People are pretty robust. But they probably don't take things for granted as they once did. ... They have been taken aback. They
recognize their vulnerability now."
Reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at zhollander@adn.com or 907 257-4591.