Last year, the world watched stunning news reports of mass devastation from the historically destructive force of the Carr Fire and Camp Fire in Northern California. The human, economic and environmental impact of the fires was staggering:
Nearly 100 people killed or missing
Over $18 billion in damages
Nearly 400,000 acres burned
Thousands of homes destroyed
Tens of thousands of people and animals displaced
TSE Sr. Systems Engineer Rodney McClean couldn’t just sit and watch. Instead, he and his wife, Joanna, took action.
The couple joined forces with the nonprofit Lifeline Disaster Relief, a Northern California-based organization that provides emergency relief by responding to disasters. Lifeline volunteers delivers food, shelter, household supplies, medical supplies and a network of volunteers such as McClean to assist in relief operations.
Rod has been part of the Lifeline volunteer team assisting operations being run out of a makeshift disaster recovery center at Magalia Community Church, located in the heart of the deadly Carr Fire burn area. Lifeline currently has two 2,400 square-foot tents set up for assistance to displaced, disrupted and homeless persons, plus about 7,000 square feet of church building areas used to distribute food, water, clothing, hygiene supplies, linens, kitchen supplies, toys, furniture, and other items donated by supporters. "We have been set up onsite since early February and it looks like we will continue to provide food and supplies at least until the end of 2020,” says Gary DeGennaro, who founded Lifeline Disaster Relief. "Our focus is not only to provide for their physical needs, but to provide for their spiritual and emotional needs as well.”
When not working on one of his numerous transit engineering projects for TSE, McClean has been assisting in delivering over 85,000 pounds of food, water and supplies to Lifeline’s disaster recovery center for fire victims.
McClean’s commitment to Lifeline mirrors that of his dedication to TSE’s projects. He is a Master Electrician and Electrical Engineer with over 40 years of experience with multi‐million dollar projects and hundreds of personnel. He has performed engineering services for construction of many large‐scale facilities, including SFO Airport, BART extension into SFO, Amtrak and Caltrain.
TSE encourages its employees to engage in their local communities through the company's "Good Neighbor" program, which makes a donation to various employee charitable efforts every quarter. Inspired and impressed by McClean’s efforts, TSE has awarded Lifeline its latest financial award through its Good Neighbor program. To learn more about Lifeline Disaster Relief, or to make a donation to the organization, please visit https://www.lifelinedisasterrelief.org.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Emeryville, with satellite offices nationwide, Transit Systems Engineering is a global provider of transit system solutions. You can learn about several other TSE projects here.
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