Although Joseph Hattala is an OxyChem retiree, he gratefully isn’t leading a slower life.
As St. Charles Parish’s disaster relief captain for the American Red Cross for the last five years, the Luling resident has come to identify trends in calamity that tend to strike at odd hours and times. But that’s okay with Hattala because it reminds him of the shift work with early hours and late nights he worked as a chemical engineer for years.
As part of his job, Hattala also dealt with OSHA and EPA, as well as was the company’s liaison for several years with the parish’s EOC so the demands of the Red Cross are a natural fit for him.
No matter to Hattala, even at age 72, that he has spent many of his holidays – Mardi Gras, the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year’s Day – at disasters.
“It makes you feel good that you can help somebody,” he said. “People think of us with the flood, but day-to-day can be the fires, a wind storm or a tree on a house or mobile home.”
In his experience, calamity strikes at least 80 percent of the time at night, weekends and holidays.
“I’ve been at a New Year’s Eve fire with three apartments,” Hattala said. “I’ve been to a chimney fire in Mardi Gras in Edgard.”
Hattala’s most recent disaster was the tornado that struck St. James Parish in February.
“There were two fatalities at a trailer park just up the river with the tornado, which destroyed 60 to 80 trailers,” he said “It just tore them up.”
By that night, the Red Cross had a shelter open.“You try to calm or help them,” Hattala said. “You try to have them some place to go. We try to assist people and give them things to get them back in order.”
He also knew this place because of having responded to a fire in the same mobile home park a year earlier. Although every situation is different, Hattala said the typical procedure begins with trying to get information about the disaster from the EOC and the client. Then he heads to the scene.
“There’s no way to predict when something like that is going to happen,” he said. “We try to help stabilize the situation, provide them some place to stay and finances.”
Information is critical to effective response, which is why Hattala is especially complimentary of the St. Charles Parish Emergency Operations Center being open 24/7. He said it is the only one with this availability in Louisiana’s 64 parishes.
“It is a central clearing place,” he said. “You can get the information on the client or the extent of the damage.”The Red Cross tries to have volunteers at a disaster within two hours of a call, which he said often surprises clients especially at night.
Hattala understands his role as a Red Cross volunteer is to provide his clients with some sense of normalcy. But he’s also pleased that he’s able to help with what seems like the little things in life even if it’s just a stuffed Mickey Mouse toy to a child.
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