Friday, December 20, 2013

Disaster website gains steam

County considers liability issues with Hailey.recovers.org


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

    When floods, fires and power outages hit the city of Hailey, community members are often more than willing to provide aid. Knowing where to bring that aid, and to whom, got easier last summer.
    The website Hailey.recovers.org went live last summer to connect citizen volunteers with those in need of emergency services. The city of Hailey is now hoping to expand use of the site to other cities in the valley, and to Blaine County.
    The Hailey Firefighters Association paid for the first year’s subscription to the site, which runs out in June. The cost of the website for the entire county would be $1,000 per year, said Hailey volunteer coordinator and librarian LeAnn Gelskey.
    Gelskey said Hailey.recovers.org went live only two weeks before the Beaver Creek Fire threatened Hailey last August, just in time for volunteers listed on the site to help out animals stranded by the fire.
    “We didn’t have much time between training and going live,” Gelskey said. “But people came forward to move animals, share homes, provide transportation and donate garden food, anything they could think of that they wanted to share.”
    Today, the website has 150 volunteers offering a wide range of services, vehicles and tools. Categories for goods and services on the website include everything from food, hygiene products and money, to medical, transportation and language translation services. These goods and services are matched on the website using easy-to-use computer programs, with a list of community members’ needs during an emergency.
    “The most recent needs we have seen posted are for medical transportation. People have medical needs outside the valley, appointments they need to get to but cannot,” Gelskey said.
    Former Hailey Fire Chief Mike Chapman brought Hailey.recovers.org online last summer with help from the Hailey Firefighters Association, Hailey Public Library and the Wood River Amateur Radio Club as a resource for disaster preparedness, community awareness and community aid.
    Hailey.recovers.org is a franchise website of Recovers.org, a website founded in 2011 by Harvard University graduate Caitria O’Neill, following a tornado disaster in her hometown of Monson, Mass.
    A small group of administrators ran the Hailey.recovers.org site around the clock for several days during the Beaver Creek Fire.
    Gelskey recently presented the Hailey.recovers.org website to the Blaine County Commission, along with a request for funding.
    County Commission Chair Larry Schoen said the commission is concerned about liability issues associated with people providing goods and services in association with the site, but that the door is open to further discussion.
    “We do not have anything like this,” Schoen said. “I think we are interested in seeing if this makes sense as a regional effort.”




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.