Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Felida man helps shelter kits reach disaster zones

John Cordell was recently in a far-off place that reminded him very much of home.

The Felida resident, a retired Portland police detective, was in southern Chile to help out after the eruption of a volcano called Calbuco. Calbuco is about 45 miles northeast of a major city, Puero Montt, and it erupted dozens of times throughout the 1800s and 1900s. Then all was quiet, for four decades — until April of this year, when suddenly there were three eruptions in eight days. The first was big enough to send a plume of ash miles into the sky and lava flowing into a nearby lake. Four thousand people were evacuated from the volcano zone.

“In many ways, it was identical to the eruption of Mount St. Helens,” Cordell said. There was plenty of minor damage to local homes from ashfall, he said, but fixing that is a matter of repairing roofs and shoveling ash, he said. Other homes were destroyed by lava flows and mudslides, he said, requiring the relocation of hundreds of people.

That’s where ShelterBox, the international relief organization that Cordell has volunteered for since 2009, comes in. Shelterbox aims to respond as quickly and smartly as possible to disasters with repair supplies, survival kits and emergency shelters, he said.

The name doesn’t mean that people shelter in boxes, though. A shelterbox, Cordell said, typically is a 120-pound package that includes “everything a family needs to get their feet back under them” after a disaster has left the homeless: a “very sturdy” six-person tent, thermal blankets and ground sheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking equipment and a food service set, basic tools, mosquito nets — and diversions for children.

It doesn’t include food, though, because that’s usually plentiful enough on the ground, even in disaster zones — and because getting it across borders can slow things way down. Shelterbox aims to respond to disasters, whether they’re natural or manmade, within days, Cordell said.

Cordell, who has traveled all over the globe helping ShelterBox deliver assistance, said his two weeks in Chile were especially interesting and rewarding because his ShelterBox team was working closely with a partner delegation from Habitat for Humanity. ShelterBox was covering the immediate emergency response, he said, while Habitat was aiming for transitional housing and the longer-term construction of new, permanent homes.

“I have nothing but the highest regard for the people I met from Habitat,” he said. “I have great confidence they will do well.” That partnership, and ShelterBox’s own, always careful response, represents “a humanitarian community that has become infinitely more sophisticated since the early days,” he said. ShelterBox was founded in England in 2000.

Back in Clark County, ShelterBox supporter Joe Toscano of Ridgefield recently held a living-room fundraiser for ShelterBox and its effort to respond to the devastating recent earthquake in Nepal. Bill Woodard, another ShelterBox first responder who has been to Nepal, gave a talk and even unpacked a shelterbox to set everything up, right there in the yard.

“It was really impressive,” Toscano said. The fundraiser brought in $5,300, he said.

Learn more about ShelterBox at www.shelterbox.org.

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.