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NEPMU 2 Establishes Water Supply for Biloxi Residents, Relief Workers

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050912-08
Release Date: 9/12/2005 8:00:00 PM

By Journalist 1st Class (SCW/SS) James G. Pinsky, Navy News Service

NAVAL AIR STATION JOINT RESERVE BASE, New Orleans (NNS) -- Nine members of Naval Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 2’s Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU) East arrived in Biloxi, Miss., Sept. 8 as part of their effort to establish a safe environment for relief workers and residents recovering from the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

The FDPMU East team members tested Biloxi High School’s potable water supply for contaminants so the FEMA-run shelter could use the school’s resources to care for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and relief workers. The tests came back negative for contaminants.

“With one phone call I was able to give a thousand people hot showers and fresh drinking water for the first time in days,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ray Stiff, an industrial hygiene officer assigned to FDPMU East. “That’s a great feeling.”

Before receiving word from FDPMU East that their water was a safe, evacuees and relief workers, including volunteers from USS Bataan (LHD 5), used bottled water for everything from drinking to cooking and even brushing their teeth.

“I requested our water get tested as soon as we got here,” said Mike Steinkraos, FEMA Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) CA-1 commander.

While plenty of bottled water was available to the Biloxi shelter, being able to use the school’s conventional water supply eased logistical concerns inherent to supplying enough water for a thousand people from a source outside of the area.

“A deployed unit needs about five liters of drinking water a day,” said Stiff. “So, when you consider that a gallon of water weighs about eight pounds, you’re looking at moving about 12 pounds of water for each person just for one day. Multiply that by a number like the thousand people in Biloxi, and you’ve got a yourself a logistical burden which can be eliminated by bringing a city’s normal water supply back on line - and additional resources that can now be redirected to other priorities in the relief efforts.”

In addition to helping personnel in Biloxi, FDPMU East Sailors assisted Department of Defense (DoD) and other relief workers in Pascagoula and Gulfport, Miss.

FDPMU East personnel are currently assisting DoD personnel, along with local, state and federal relief agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to restore habitable living conditions - like safe drinking water - for Hurricane Katrina survivors and relief workers in the region.