Emergency management students responded to the call for help
on Monday from Carol Cwiak, faculty and internship coordinator
for the emergency management program at NDSU's Department of
Sociology, Anthropology and Emergency Management. The students
got a crash course in using the skills they have learned in the
classroom by helping streamline the Flood Central Call Center and
volunteer registration sites.
Cwiak said it is a great opportunity for the students to
experience the dynamics of a real event and learn how to work
with many agencies to fill different flood control directives.
She held back tears while talking about the students.
"They've stepped up. They've become leaders. They are basically
leading these volunteer registration sites. They are leading at
the call center," she said. "I could not be prouder. They
delivered."
Phone lines stretched across the floor at Flood Central Call
Center, and tables and phones filled the room. Coffee and
thermoses were ready for volunteers answering the phone lines to
take information on sandbag requests, determine where volunteers
are most needed and provide any information needed on flood
resources.
Ryan McEwan, a graduate student in emergency management, has been
at the call center almost nonstop since Monday morning. He is
volunteering 16 to 18 hours a day as the overnight manager.
"This is like an extension of the classroom. We get to fulfill
roles where the greatest need is," he said. "It's tiring, but
because the need is so great, that alone energizes me."
McEwan expects to continue working phones and inputting requests
for sandbags into next week. He said the phones slow down
overnight, but at 7 a.m., they start to ring non-stop until 10
p.m. All of the emergency management students are helping in some
capacity either at the phone center, at volunteer sites or on the
front lines at the dikes.
Large sheets of paper attached to the walls around the room
provided numbers for various churches, daycare, showers, hotels,
busses, storage and where to send volunteers when they call. Each
volunteer also had a cheat sheet of numbers for emergency
contacts, food donation sites for restaurants and evacuation
information.
The room buzzed with chatter from volunteers on the 20 phones
that constantly rang. Thousands of calls go through the center
each day.
Natasha Conway, director of hotline operations at FirstLink, was
managing Flood Central on her own from Friday to Sunday. When the
emergency management students and faculty joined the team on
Monday, she said a huge weight was lifted off her
shoulders.
"Words cannot describe how much they have helped," she said.
"Without their help, we would not be able to run 24 hours a
day."