From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: KSC continues its relief effort for Hurricane Andrew victims [Release 119-92/KSC] (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 19:50:01 GMT

          Bruce Buckingham
          407/867-2468                                      Sept. 1, 1992

          KSC RELEASE NO. 119 - 92


          KSC CONTINUES ITS RELIEF EFFORT FOR HURRICANE ANDREW VICTIMS


               Employees at Kennedy Space Center are uniting in their
          efforts to assist Hurricane Andrew victims in South Florida by
          donating food, supplies and cash.

               KSC is encouraging its 20,000-plus employees to bring in
          additional supplies to various drop points around the center so
          they can be properly packaged for delivery to those areas hit
          hardest by the storm.

               Items employees are being asked to bring include all types
          of baby products and food, meal-type canned foods, an assortment
          of camping gear, large family-size tents, flashlights, batteries,
          can openers, trash bags and personal hygiene items.

               Lou Phillips, a packaging specialist for NASA, is assisting
          in the effort to properly package the items being brought in for
          South Florida residents. "We will be spending the next day making
          food packs for small, medium and large families so they can be
          handed out easily," Phillips said. "We will also be sending a lot
          of excess building materials that we have on hand here at KSC."

               Materials from KSC employees will be gathered through
          tomorrow in time for a convoy of at least three 40-foot long
          flat-bed trucks to leave KSC Thursday morning. Contributions
          coming in after Wednesday will be transported to South Florida
          later.

               Cash donations are also being accepted through a special KSC
          fund established with the Salvation Army in Titusville.

               The effort to collect needed items will continue throughout
          the next several weeks.

               Last week a convoy of nearly a dozen trucks and cars packed
          with durable goods left Kennedy Space Center en route to South
          Florida to assist residents hit hardest by Hurricane Andrew.

               NASA and its KSC contractors began mobilizing soon after the
          storm passed to do whatever possible to assist the nearly 250,000
          people left homeless and hungry in Andrew's wake.

               Friday morning, Aug. 28, three 5,000-gallon water tankers
          led the convoy on the five-hour drive, followed by two 40-foot
          tractor trailers loaded with an assortment of relief items for
          the people of South Florida. Included on the trucks were: meal
          packets, sleeping cots, blankets, mattresses, tents, tables,
          shelves, chairs, generators, plywood, rope, wire fencing, tool
          boxes and a three-ton hoist.

               The water tankers will remain in the Homestead, Fla. area
          for an indefinite period of time.

               Everything sent down last week was excess material over and
          above what is required to be kept at KSC for the center's own
          hurricane plan.

               "The group, made up of about 16 NASA and contractor
          employees, dispatched the wares from a darkened Homestead Pizza
          Hut parking lot late Friday night," said Cal Staubus, NASA's Fire
          and Rescue Office chief and convoy commander. "Everything was
          given away."

               On Aug. 26, six EG&G Florida Fire Services personnel headed
          down to Miami to assist local emergency personnel with rescue
          efforts. They took with them a rescue/extraction vehicle from
          KSC. While there, the crews assisted with search and rescue,
          emergency response, and hospital field work efforts.

               This team was among the first outside fire/rescue personnel
          to respond to the need. They are providing around-the-clock
          assistance on a continual basis.
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