Anita Fowler
Katrina Dispatcher needs help!

Have you had the honor of helping a 9-1-1 professional victimized by Hurricane Katrina or Rita? This may be your chance!

As I teach around the nation, dispatchers often ask how they can help. HERE is a dispatcher in need of help. Her name is Anita Fowler and she works for Hancock County, Mississippi (see story below). PLEASE do what you can to help.

I have met Anita on two of our 911 CARES trips. She took care of "her people" during Katrina, now it is our turn to take care of her. Though gifts would be nice, she has little room in her FEMA trailer. She is planning for her new house and her Doctor says she needs a new mattress and other items. Maybe just write out a check (even $5-$10 adds up) or get a Wal Mart gift card. Don't send it to 911 CARES, send it directly to Anita at the following address:

Anita Fowler
PO BOX 251
Kiln, MS - 39556

A card of support would lift her spirits too. Let's save one of our own.

We need to help Anita and her co-workers, They are STILL IN FEMA trailers! Their houses are still not re-built. I've wanted to help since my last visit to the gulf and I think I have an idea! I envision a group of 30-50 dispatchers going down to the Gulf (once hurricane season is over) and lending our talents to help wall-up, paint, do garden work, build fences, etc. We will work on dispatcher's homes. We will run it like an incident dispatch team! We will need food service people, logistics, worker bees, shoppers, huggers and lots more.

I don't want a commitment now, just an idea if you are interested. There are NO exact dates or details right now. You will probably have to get yourself down to the gulf and we will split housing costs if we can't find a place to house us. Past that, 911 CARES will pay for food, re-building materials and whatever we need to help our brothers and sisters. ANYONE is welcome to help, you know there are some firefighters, officers and family members that have construction skills. In a perfect world, we will need a couple electricians, dry wallers, tile people, etc.

Let your mind go wild and e-mail me at kevin@pstc911.com. I will start a folder of offers and once we get the details I promise to post them. (**right now I am thinking just after the first of the year. It will take some coordination and scheduling work but I think this is too important to let it pass by PLUS our friends like Amita, need us. )-below is her story -

Thanks all - Kevin and the team at 911 CARES
www.911cares.com 650-595-5202 x102

DROWNING IN DESPAIR: Katrina took everything from Anita Fowler, including her self-worth. KILN, Miss.

Every day at her job as a 911 supervisor, Anita Fowler talks people off the ledge. They cry that their homes are still gone, that they can't stop missing their dead friends. Ms. Fowler must reassure them that life is still worth living. She tells them: "You can get through this." But at home alone in her government trailer, with her decaying dream home just outside her window, her words ring hollow.

Every night, she fights the misery and near solitude, battling thoughts of shame and suicide, teetering on the edge of alcoholism. "I don't want to give up," says Ms. Fowler, 53, her voice quiet and sweet. "I know there's something better. ... I don't think I'll ever kill myself. I hope to God not, anyway."

On the night the water hit the ceiling on her house, which stands on land that's been in her family for more than a century, she took the 911 calls from drowning friends and neighbors.

Since then, the divorced mother of two has spiraled downward. The flashbacks and nightmares are bad enough, but - even worse - she can't recognize her former self anymore. "I know this is not me," she said.

Ms. Fowler, the daughter of a singer, says she had never been promiscuous, never drank much and had fallen in love again after a troubled marriage. Now, she drinks Budweiser and smokes Marlboro Lights for dinner.

Sometimes, she replaces the beer with sleeping pills. She tries not to think about the dark time right after the storm - when her high-risk, self-defeating behavior both helped her escape from the trauma and punished her for surviving it. Then, she would go to bars by herself and find companions who would keep her from having to go home to that depressing trailer. Her 26-year-old son, Dallas - named for the Dallas Cowboys - yelled that he was ashamed of her, that he didn't recognize her. Her friends tried to intervene. She ignored them.

Ms. Fowler once managed a 48-unit apartment complex; now, she can't turn in her taxes on time. Since the storm, she's had health issues, surgeries and problems with her legs. She feels guilty that she got a bigger trailer modified for disabled residents. She saw counselors, but only cried. Doctors gave her pills. She struggles to put words to the sliver of hope she tries to carry with her.

"There's got to be a light at the end of the rainbow," she said. Mr. Cuevas was "willing to forgive me," and the two got back together last year. He is, Ms. Fowler said, the only reason she's reined in her out-of-control behavior.

He tells her she's just got to get a handle on things. "It's kind of rough, watching her be like this," he said. She finds joy and strength in a few places. She is close to her sons, Dallas and 19-year-old Chad, and she takes road trips to see them.

But her sisters and her best friend are struggling, too. Once, she would have helped them, the same instinct that led her to nursing school and 911 dispatch. "I can't fix their problems now," she said. "I can't even fix mine."

She's been a 911 dispatcher for 21 years, but now, Ms. Fowler is thinking about a different job at some cold, innocuous place. Like the electric company. "She used to be a rock," said niece Lucretia Garcia. "Now she's the river."