ML19309G277
| ML19309G277 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 09/25/1979 |
| From: | Prewitt D AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Crocker L, Herr F NRC - NRC THREE MILE ISLAND TASK FORCE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19309G273 | List: |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-TMR NUDOCS 8005050499 | |
| Download: ML19309G277 (5) | |
Text
'
8005050 777
-s
. c )s s-MEMOR/dDUM OF INTERVIEW On September 25, 1979, Lawrence Crocker and Frederick Herr, NRC/TMI Special Inquiry Group, interviewed Mr. Daniel L. Previtt, Assistant Director for Disaster Services, Eastern Field Office, American Red Cross (phone no.
857-8204).
The interview took place in the American Red Cross' Eastern Field Office Headquarters at 615 North St. Asaph St., Alexandria, Virginia.
The interview began at 10:00 a.m. and lasted about one hour.
The purpose of the interview was to determine the activities of the American Red Cross in response to the accident at TMI.
Mr. Prewitt was provided with a copy of the Special Inquiry Group Witness Notification prior to the start of the interview.
Mr. Prewitt stated that the Red Cross was chartered by the Congress in 1905 and charged with two specific tasks:
disaster relief and service to the military.
The Red Cross has taken on other responsibi'ities in addition to these two but the extent of involvement with the other services varies from chapter to chap-The two basic services of the Red Cross are provided by all chapters.
ter.
There are about 3,000 Red Cro'ss chapters throughout the United States.
Chapters are generally, but not exclusively, organized on a county basis.
Each chapter is semi-autonomous and is headed by a volunteer board of directors.
The Go next level up is the division of which there are,k6' within the U.S.
Above the divisions are four field offices which are staffed by employees of the national organization and headed by a manager.
The National Chapter is headed by-a Board of Governors (of which the President is the honorary chairman) which sets policy for the local chapters, c. isions and field offices.
The authority of the 9
2 av G oss aao tt National Cher+.e Board is based on their control over funds and their authority to renove the charter fro = a local chapter.
During the accident at TMI the operative organization and the channel of commun-ications was from the Harrisburg Chapter, to the Philadelphia Division to the Eastern Field Office.
On March 28, 1979. the Eastern Field Office was advised by Ed Koast, Chapter Manager in Harrisburg, through Philadelphia, that an accident had occurred, but there was no real problem.
Koast had been in contact with officials from Pennsyl-vania's Civil Defense office and advised that about 16,000 persons were in the area that could be affected by an evacuation.
There was no real concern within the Field Office until Friday morning when the potential problems at TMI seemed to have the potential for exceeding the capabilities of the Chapter and Divi-sion.
As a result Mr. Prewitt went to Harrisburg on Friday, March 30, arriving at about 7:30 p.m. in the Harrisburg Chapter offices. At that point the National ovZ+u.7ATo o d OL.p t : took over control of Red Cross operations relating to TMI and all deci-sions were made by Mr. Previtt or his staff.
Upon arrival in Harrisburg, Mr. Previtt was briefed by the Harrisburg Chapter Disaster staff.
A shelter ha already been set up by the Chapter in the Hershey Arena, Hershey, Pa., to care for those who evacuated under the Governor's advi-sory relating to pregnant women and preschool children.
The shelter operation l
remained wholly a chapter functions however overall planning and coe+.rol was o t des M 2 A 1* w N taken over by the National Ch;pt:r.- Mr. Prewitt also requested ARC Headquarters to send 35 mass care plan;. irs to Harrisburg, which was done.
l l
O
3 Mr. Prewitt noted th:t the standard approach of the Red Cross in handling dis-asters is to first establish mass care facilities to handle immediate needs.
However, they feel that this is an expensive and inefficient way to handle long-term needs, so they emphasize an early shift from the mass care mode to the fa=ily service code of operations.
Mr. Previtt noted that about 80% of Red Cross assistance funds are disbursed through family service.
This involves giving qualified families vouchers for food and clothing which can be exchanged for merchandise at stores of their choice.
Red Croes operations at TMI, however, were anticipated to be strictly for mass care centers and would have involved no family service.
The 35 mass care planners began arriving in Harrisburg Saturday morning, March 31.
One mass care planner was assigned to each chapter in a host county.
The planners stayed in the host counties for the next 2 or 3 days drawing up mass care plans.
One problem arose in this operation because the Red Cross was sending planners to the host counties before the Pennsylvania Emergency Manage-ment Agency (PEMA) had made decisions as to which counties were to be host counties.
As a result some planners were sent to counties which were not desig-nated host counties and other designated host counties did not get planners.
Some reshuf fling of planners was required af ter PEMA had decided on host counties.
Mr. Prewitt stated that the Red Cross provides its services during disasters.
However, 4WWwme TMI was a man-made problem, and there was some question as to whether it was a disaster.
In addition, there was'no declared disaster by either the Governor or the President which created some problems.in the Red
)
l
4 Cross response.
Mr. Previtt did state, however, that the Red Cross response was clarified by supplementing the pre-existing agreement between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Red Cross with a letter of intent to Col. Henderson, Director, PEMA, which stated that the Red Cross would provide mass care services in all shelters in host counties and, if resources were available, would assist at staging arena if requested.
Mr. Prewitt noted that the problems experienced by the Red Cross in this regard also apparently affected other volunteer organ-izations that routinely respond to disasters.
He mentioned specifica11f that the Salvation Army, which commonly responds to disasters, did not provide or volunteer services in response to the accident at THI.
A further problem is that the Red Cross did not know how long they would have had to run the mass care centers.
During other disasters the Red Cross can plan that people will leave the shelters in about 10 days.
At TMI they didn't know how long the evacuation would be for or even if residents would ever be able to return home.
Mr. Previtt estimated that if the evacuation had taken place, the cous:1 Red Creas week 6 have spent about $1 million per day for mass care.
Mr. Prewitt also stated that during the accident he asked where PEMA and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (FDAA) were planning to move in the event of an evacuation, but fodnd out that that had not been decided.
Since the Red Cross was planning to go with PEMA and FDAA, the Red Cross could not make plans for establishing communications with its Headquarters.
He said that PEMA and FDAA had apparently not made relocation plans, including establishing communications lines to relocation points.
5 The Red Cross was also hampered in its efforts because it could not get good information.
No one person within the PEMA Emergency Operations Center had all the info rmation.
In addition, decisions were co=ing out of many sources and what were purported to be decisions were sometimes found not to be correct.
Mr. Prewitt said there was no pre-existing disaster plan at TMI involving all affected agencies.
He said there is a need for mandatory disaster preplanning ct all nuclear plants.
In regard to the mass care center at the Hershey Arena, Mr. Prewitt said that L
the Arena had long been planned for use as a shelter by the Dauphin County Chapter.
After the evacuation advisory was made on March 30, the Chapter con-tacted the arena management, which agreed to allow the arena to 'se used as a shelter. When the shelter was established, the Hershey Corporation wanted it to be a joint Red Cross / Hershey Corp. operation and during its operation, the Corporation provf.ded food, security, utilities and some medical personnel.
Although the Corporation stated at that tine that it was not expecting reim-Appuoremares; 5:.c p s bursement for its services, they did send the Red Cross a bill for,$4&rGG0 about two weeks after the shelter closed.
Red Cross costs were about $30,000 for this shelter.
The initial population of the shelter was about 175 but dropped off steadily after that.
\\
Mr. Prewitt stated that because of the extensive voluntary evacuation by the general populace in the TMI area the Red Cross had difficulty getting volunteers to work in the shelter. As a result, colanteers from Philadelphia had to be brought in to relieve the ;olunteers from the Hershey area.
/
m