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At a makeshift command center at Gautier High School in coastal Jackson County, firefighters from the Bay Area and across the Golden State are hosting other first responders and literally running the local government.
The 16-member East Bay Incident Command Team is on a two-week mission that leaves them in charge of recovery operations in this county of about 133,000.
And a group of 33 other California firefighters called California Team Four has been in the region for nearly a month running this command center, which is housing about 600 first responders, including the East Bay team and those from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"It's mind-boggling that we're running so much of the day-to-day operations of the county," said Brian Caminda, battalion chief of the Newark Fire Department and a member of the East Bay team.
It's an unusual arrangement, and one that Jackson County officials considered essential in the wake of Katrina's devastation, county spokesman Ken Flanagan said.
And it's an assignment that could get more complicated with Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Gulf Coast. The East Bay team is making evacuation plans for residents and volunteers in the county.
"One concern is all the emergency workers and volunteers here and how they'll get out," said Mike Fisher, division chief for the city of Alameda Fire Department. "Even
The Alameda and Contra Costa Incident Command Team was asked to take over recovery for Jackson County by the state of Mississippi after Katrina hit.
The Incident Command Teams were created in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1991 Oakland hills fire to assist local jurisdictions affected by large-scale emergencies.
Among the East Bay team's chief duties is cutting through the red tape.
"It's not so much the federal bureaucracy but the state and local," said Vince Hobbs, fire captain of the Hayward Fire Department.
This includes getting legal authority to condemn hundreds of moldy and waterlogged houses and buildings, moving portable toilets into areas with no running water and detailing weather forecasts several times a day for local authorities.
All told, the East Bay team is managing more than 5,000 workers in the county, including city planners, technical specialists, housing and public works.
Team members typically get about four hours of sleep a night.
Besides incoming Hurricane Rita, another big concern is 150,000 pounds of fish in the coastal city of Pascagoula.
The frozen fish was being stored in a warehouse when Hurricane Katrina hit and a large boat landed on the roof. Three weeks later, the fish is no longer frozen and is rotting under the boat and other debris.
The East Bay team is working to get the Environmental Protection Agency to declare the site an environmental hazard and clean it up.
The problems in just this one county are endless.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ron Gesner, battalion chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Department, and Mitch Deihl, a situation leader for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, took an hourlong helicopter tour to view the destruction and check progress.
The devastation along the Mississippi coast is vast — mile after mile of flattened homes, overturned boats and crumbling casinos. Bridges stripped naked to the pylons and acres of trees brown and withered from the salt water.
"It's kind of numbing isn't it?" Gesner said. "You just look at this and you wonder how to get your arms around it."
From the air, it was apparent most roads have been cleared of debris, and the beaches have been scraped clean.
About 1 million cubic feet of debris had been collected in Jackson County alone, but looking down on the area via helicopter, much more work would be ahead.
And the cleanup could be compounded by Rita.
Members of the East Bay team said they're learning much from this experience that they can put to use back home in the next earthquake or fire.
"Fires are so clean now compared to this," said Mike Brown, operations chief of the East Bay team and battalion chief of the San Ramon Valley Fire Department. "Hurricanes come through and make such a mess."
Contact Rebecca Vesely at rvesely@angnewspapers.com.
