Uncover the sandwiches.
Get some ice.
Unpack the comfort kits for the parents and children.
Let?s go, the plane is on the ground.
Casey Dutton, clutching a red binder and peering sternly through wire rims, barked orders to the Red Cross volunteers under her supervision Thursday to get them moving.
“You hear people say the plane is on the ground, but it?s all a rumor,” said Sue Sanborn, by now a four-flight veteran. “You can?t know for sure until someone starts clapping.”
The evacuation of American citizens stranded in war-torn Lebanon is a hurry-up-and-wait game.
The volunteers have been on call for 12-hour shifts at the makeshift repatriation center at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport since July 20.
Donna Dorsey, executive director of the local Red Cross board of directors, said finding people to staff the tables stocked with fruit, sandwiches and drinks has been a nightmare. Many of the shifts have stretched into the early-morning hours.
Few of the 19 planes carrying 4,492 weary evacuees into BWI have arrived on time, volunteers said.
“We know what we?re doing,” Dorsey said. “The chaos is just knowing when the flights are coming in.”
But when the planes finally arrive, the volunteers are swarmed by evacuees with bloodshot eyes desperate to get home and distract their restless children after long flights and, for many, a 12-hour trip aboard a cargo vessel to Cyprus. They?ve felt the vibrations of bombs and left family behind, and many just want a drink of water and a shower.
Some evacuees, like those who have severe dehydration and children who have upset stomachs and bug bites, need further assistance ? and that?s what Dorsey, who isalso a nurse, is also there for. She even helped one woman who fell on a plane.
Her husband, Neil, keeps drinks cold on ice while Sanborn distributes adult comfort kits converted for children by replacing razors, shaving cream and deodorant with Mickey Mouse dolls.
Jay Parry-Hill makes trips to a Millersville transit stop, whose owners donated free coffee and tea.
Dutton reminded the volunteers to make sure they leave before they are too tired to drive home. But for most, that would mean waiting hours and missing all the action.
“This is what I do,” Dorsey said. “Working for the Red Cross is part of who I am.”
REPATRIATION UPDATE
Maryland officials shut down the repatriation center Friday afternoon after the final flight carrying 197 passengers arrived at 10:05 a.m. Officials reported 4,492 evacuees came through BWI on 19 flights since July 20.
