Red Cross, Army train for disaster relief

The Red Cross and U.S. Army ferried an SUV and an ambulance across the water from Tampa to Pinellas County this morning, training to provide emergency help should a hurricane cut off land access to Pinellas.

Hundreds of thousands of people could be stranded in Pinellas after a hurricane with only limited land access through the northern part of the county, said Pam Bartley, a Red Cross manager in Pinellas County. Getting supplies to those people by water might be the only way to reach them, she said.

The Army Reserves and Red Cross loaded two Red Cross emergency response vehicles onto a 72-foot landing craft, capable of carrying 60 tons of cargo, and left the U.S. Army Reserve Center at Rattle Snake Point about 7 a.m. The vessel landed at the Gandy boat ramp, on the Pinellas side of the Gandy Bridge, about an hour later and drove to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on 56th Street North, where Red Cross workers practiced setting up an emergency shelter.

The exercise taught Red Cross workers that loading and unloading vehicles onto a military landing craft was more difficult than they thought, said Bartley.

The Army Reservists learned there are differences between loading and unloading civilian and military vehicles, which have higher clearances, said Army Chief Warrant Officer Jerry Mitchell, who was in charge of the military end of the operation. Today was the first time in 28 years Mitchell had unloaded civilian vehicles.

The Red Cross vehicles' lower clearance required layering parts of the landing craft's ramp with timbers to keep their undercarriages from hitting the deck.

This is the first time the Red Cross and the Army have practiced moving equipment by water.

If relief workers really did need to ferry personnel and supplies to Pinellas County, the Red Cross has several other landing sites it could use, such as the U.S. Coast Guard Station, which can accommodate cargo, vehicles and larger Army vessels.