USA: Retired Nurse Goes at Moment's Notice to Help at Disasters

HAVERHILL, Massachusetts (The Eagle-Tribune), July 16, 2007: Some folks travel for pleasure. Others, like Pam Nolin, are ready to pack their bags to help when disaster strikes. Nolin, 60, a retired licensed practical nurse, was in Louisiana addressing the medical needs of displaced individuals one day after Hurricane Katrina struck. As a volunteer with the American Red Cross of Merrimack Valley, she goes wherever there is a major disaster. After Katrina in August 2005, it was Hurricane Rita a month later, then the devastating tornadoes in Alabama this March. She recently returned from a two-week trip to north-central Texas and southwest Oklahoma, where relentless rain resulted in flooding that displaced thousands of people. "Every day I'm helping these people it feels like I'm accomplishing something," Nolin said. "Even if I'm just there to sit and listen to someone." Nolin devoted 25 years of her life to nursing, working with Home Health VNA and at Merrimack Valley Hospital. When she retired several years ago she was looking for a way to continue using her nursing skills. That's when she contacted the local Red Cross chapter, which signed her on as a health services volunteer. "She's an excellent volunteer," said Deb Duxbury, director of emergency and volunteer services for the Merrimack Valley chapter of the Red Cross. "If she isn't being deployed to a national emergency, she's willing to help locally in our Health Department. Volunteers like Pam come from the community, and they are supported by the community." Hurricane Katrina was Nolin's first assignment. She spent more than two weeks traveling from one devastated area to another in Louisiana as part of a mobile medical response team. "We were setting up temporary shelters in existing buildings and I was assessing clients for their medical needs, and providing them with medications, oxygen, walkers or whatever else they required," she said. Red Cross officials said it is a match made in heaven because the job of volunteers often requires they be ready to travel on short notice, and have the time to spend two or three weeks at a disaster site. The Red Cross pays for all flights, hotels and meals. "All I need is a few weeks to do my laundry and recoup, then I'm ready to go," Nolin said. "I've learned to have a backpack ready to go on short notice." The recent flooding in Texas was an eye-opener for Nolin, even though she's helped at some of the worst disasters the country has seen. "There was more devastation than I'd imagined," Nolin said. "The area I was in was very poor, and people lost what little they had. You couldn't walk into a house after the water receded because of the mold." It can be stressful work, but Nolin said she thrives on the stress as do many other nurses. "People ask me why I do it and I tell them that I get so much more out of this than I give," she said. Jay Foley, director of community development for the American Red Cross of Merrimack Valley, said Nolin was one of more than 1,000 Red Cross volunteers from across the country who spent time in Texas, helping individuals and families recover from the flooding. "Many people don't understand what we're all about," Foley said. "We are 96 percent volunteer and we depend on people like Pam Nolin." Pam Nolin has worked at these disaster sites: * Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, August 2005 * Hurricane Rita in Texas, September 2005 * Merrimack Valley flooding, May 2006 * Tornadoes in Alabama, March 2007 * Merrimack Valley flooding, April 2007 * Flooding in Texas and Oklahoma, June/July 2007 By Mike LaBella The Eagle-Tribune © Copyright Eagle Tribune Publishing Company.