news-record.com

EDEN — Dennis Caillouet, 50, keeps a bag packed at all times, with enough clothing and personal items for three weeks.

When he gets a certain call, he has to be ready to leave in four hours.

Caillouet is an American Red Cross National Emergency Response team member, and he never knows when or where his services might be needed.

“I’m one of the ones they call out first,” he said. “I get a call, and I’ve got to be ready and heading to the airport in four hours.”

Caillouet has an 800 number he calls to be booked on a plane. He packs for three weeks because there are few opportunities and little time for washing clothes in the field.

“I don’t ever take these clothes out,” Caillouet said. “When I get the call, all I have to do is take my bag out and put my sleeping bag on it. I never go without a sleeping bag because you’re liable not to get a bed.”

Last July, Caillouet went to Portsmouth, N.H., and trained to be a subject matter expert, learning to teach people how to use hand-held computerized units or PDAs.

During major disasters, the Red Cross calls the quick assessment team out first. Caillouet teaches these people to use PDAs to do damage assessments.

His involvement with the Red Cross actually began when Hurricane Katrina hit the nation’s coastline. Caillouet saw advertisements about the Red Cross needing volunteers.

He drove to Greensboro and talked to Susan Smith who got him involved. He took all the classes required to work shelters one week and left the following week for the disaster zone. His first assignment was in a client shelter.

After Caillouet returned, he said, “I had seen how much good the Red Cross had done and went back to talk to Smith.” She suggested classes he could take. He took all of them.

Caillouet then went to San Diego where fires were ravaging many acres. Although he went to be a shelter supervisor, they needed a courier to drive Red Cross staff people to work sites. He also drove volunteers to and from the airport. On an average day, Caillouet drove 650 miles.

His most recent experience was during flooding in Nashville, where he spent eight days.

He has been a courier in Minnesota, driving around distributing cleanup kits for flooded houses. In Wisconsin, he was a warehouse worker, sorting, doing inventory, and distributing to people.

Normally, he stays in Red Cross shelters or churches. In Nashville, he shared a room in a motel.

“When you go for a hurricane, you’re going to be in a staff shelter,” he said. Of course, food is also provided through the Red Cross kitchens.

Now, all Caillouet does is damage assessments.

“I committed myself to the Red Cross to do assessments until this program got up and running good,” he said. “If there is a major disaster, I am committed to damage assessment.

“If for some reason they have enough people show up, then I can work somewhere else I am trained for,” he said, noting he has taken “about all the classes Red Cross offers.”

Getting to a disaster site is not always easy.

During Hurricane Dolly, Caillouet was called late that afternoon. About 10 the next morning, he boarded a flight and got as far as Memphis, but by the time he got there, all flights had been canceled. The national Red Cross told him to rent a car and travel on whatever roads were accessible to get to Baton Rouge.

He had to drive through the remnants of the hurricane, but he got there late the next night.

He stayed five days, putting a total of 1,800 miles on his rental car.

A native of Mississippi, Caillouet moved to North Carolina in 1972. His mother, Hershey Caillouet, was born and raised in Draper. His father, the late Nathan Caillouet, was a native of Mississippi

He is married to the former Lynn Dale of Reidsville. They have a daughter, Lynsey, 18; and a son, Dustin, 9.

Caillouet took a disability retirement from Duke Power’s Dan River Steam Station in 2002. He is the administrator of the Eden Moose Lodge.

Ann Fish is a Reidsville native but has lived in Eden since 1979. Contact her at annsomersfish@yahoo.com