THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509230274
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Mike Hendricks, a 39-year-old forester from Elizabeth City, has taken a team of forest service experts to Puerto Rico to help victims of Hurricane Marilyn.
``It took all night to get emergency equipment ready to fly out of Norfolk last Saturday and it looks like he'll be there for another week,'' said Hendricks' wife, Gail.
The Hendrickses live with their two children, Hannah, 6, and Rebecca, 4, in the 300 block of West Colonial Ave.
North Carolina, with a team of 14, sent the largest delegation of state rescue workers to Puerto Rico after the powerful storm devasted many eastern areas of Puerto Rico as well as other nearby islands.
All together, 53 state and federal emergency workers flew to the island to reroute and reload airborne relief supplies for areas of need.
Accompanying Hendricks from the Elizabeth City office of the North Carolina Forest Service was Meyer McCaleb ``Cabe'' Speary, 28, of the 1700 block of West Church St.
Hendricks was named ``incident commander'' of a transshipping station at the Roosevelt Roads distribution center for hurricane relief.
Air Force and Navy aircraft are ferrying supplies and smaller planes are then loaded with urgently needed stocks for isolated areas in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other small islands in the northern Antilles.
``During one day and night shift - on Sept. 20 - Hendricks' crews received and distributed 111,565 pounds of relief supplies and dispatched three flights to St. Croix and seven flights to St. Thomas,'' said David Brown, a Forest Service information officer.
``No supplies remained on the ground for more than four hours before being reloaded for the hard-hit areas. In three days they moved more than 400,000 pounds of supplies,'' Brown said.
Federal agencies participating include the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the General Services Administration and FEMA.
``Mike is usually one of the first from the state Forest Service to go on these missions,'' said Gail Hendricks. ``He went off to help with Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Hugo, too,'' she said.
The Roosevelt Roads transshipping station is moving bottled water, milk, communications equipment, baby supplies, motorcycles, generators and vast amounts of plastic sheeting.
The North Carolina Forest Service also provided three aircraft, seven vans and two forklifts to help in the operation, Brown said. by CNB