Federal employees offer money, time to hurricane victims

As Hurricane Katrina brought devastation to many in the Gulf Coast, federal employees quickly offered their assistance.

The Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund, which provides grants and loans to federal employees in disasters, has received more than 1,000 individual donations since the hurricane struck.

"I've been amazed by the dollar amount of individual donations," FEEA Executive Director Steve Bauer said. "Usually you get in allotments of $5, $20…but it is not unusual for $500 or $100 gifts, sometimes more," to be made for Katrina victims. Bauer said he received one gift of $2,000 from the head of an agency.

Although cash donations have been a focus of the relief efforts for people looking to help, Bauer said it doesn't end there.

"I've had, literally, people offer homes that they've had, to put people up in," Bauer said. "I just got a call from an IRS employee whose wife owns an apartment in Houston and would like to help federal employees first. People are helping every way they can."

For Agriculture Department employee Natalie Illum, that meant posting an offer for help on the online community message board www.Craigslist.org. Illum went on the Web site soon after the hurricane hit in an attempt to reach out to those in need, offering to assist in contacting family members or friends for the missing, or other help needed.

Illum said her job as a public affairs specialist for the Agriculture Department took her to New Orleans in early July, working in the Convention Center-now known for stranded masses of evacuees-at an expo of the Institute of Food Technologists. That experience moved her even more to help.

Illum said she will be donating money to the effort, performing at poetry fund-raisers and attempting to find volunteer work with the American Red Cross or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Attempting, however, may be the operative word. Some federal employees who want to do more than give cash donations are finding it difficult.

"I'm volunteering for any and all tasks that FEMA may assign me to, including mortuary duty, as well as paperwork," said Jim Bonnette, a Customs and Immigrations Services officer with 25 years in the federal government. He also is a representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union which represents about 600,000 workers.

On Aug. 29, FEMA head Michael Brown sent a memorandum to Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff asking for 2,000 DHS employees within seven days to help with hurricane recovery. A DHS spokeswoman said Tuesday that close to 2,000 DHS employees are currently taking leave to volunteer for the recovery efforts.

Kathleen Hochman, chief human capital officer for CIS, said so far 250 CIS volunteers have been approved and their names and information sent to FEMA. Hochman said she does not know the total number of employees who volunteered, the total number of employees who have so far been approved by management to volunteer or the number of approved volunteers who actually will be contacted by FEMA to go to the Gulf Coast.

"It's still an ongoing process," Hochman said. "We're just not releasing everyone at once because we're having them go out in shifts."

"We working in the government are civil servants and we want to help fellow Americans," Bonnette said. "Because of bureaucratic baloney, we're not being allowed to do that."

One agency that has successfully deployed some volunteers to the affected areas is the Customs and Border Protection agency. According to CBP, more than 200 field officers are being deployed to the Gulf Coast, and will provide "a wide range of support including law enforcement, security, and search and rescue missions."

According the memo from Brown, DHS employees interested in volunteering should contact their human resources office, and receive their supervisor's approval. FEMA is particularly interested in staff with "bilingual capabilities, commercial driver's licenses and logistics capabilities."

For employees not in DHS, the Office of Personnel Management points aspirant volunteers to the USA Freedom Corps, which has opportunities for everyone, especially those with training in firefighting, disaster relief and police work.

DHS also runs the National Emergency Resource Registry for people looking to donate goods other than cash. The NERR accepts housing, transportation, baby supplies and other emergency goods.

FEEA takes donations through its Web site, choose "Hurricane Fund" on the dropdown list. OPM also is encouraging employees to donate to hurricane victims through the Combined Federal Campaign, which runs from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15. In 2004, federal employees raised about $256 million for charitable causes through the CFC.