arrival
Howdy, Zach watchers. This is Pam, posting on Zach's behalf. I've just spent about an hour on the phone with Zach, and he's safe and mostly sound in Texas, and seems in pretty good spirits.
He arrived with only some minor hassles (e.g., his flight was theoretically on Delta but actually was Northwest, which caused some confusion), but he had the foresight to wear a Red Cross shirt on the way, and so he hooked up with two other people who were headed his way, and they were able to rent a car and get themselves to headquarters in San Antonio. I think he said they were at Kelly Air Force Base.
I don't know how many of you were around the last time Zach went out on a DR, or know much about what goes on, but basically what's supposed to happen is that you show up at HQ, get checked in, get your assignment, talk to your boss, get settled, and start working. What actually happens is you get there, and there is massive confusion and chaos and no one is really sure what's going on, and everyone is very busy trying to figure things out, and eventually, after much waiting and chaos, everything gets sorted. This DR is no different, except today there was bonus confusion because they're shutting down the headquarters in San Antonio and moving them elsewhere tomorrow. So a bunch of people were gone and incommunicado, and there was an extra helping of No One Knows What's Going On.
Eventually, Zach reached the guy in Feeding (part of Mass Care, which is what he's been deployed to do) who is supposed to be his boss, and that guy told him to report in to the new headquarters (I think). So Zach headed out, but he rented a Ford Explorer, and so he loaded it up with supplies for an emergency shelter they're opening tomorrow in Harlingen. There is a levee that may or may not have been broken by muskrats. No one is sure -- communication is horrid (as expected), but the rumor mill is fantastic (also as expected) -- if the levee is really broken or how many evacuees there might be, but Zach thinks probably 1,000. The largest number he's heard is 6,500.
Anyway, so Zach loaded up the Explorer with supplies for the emergency shelter, and he grabbed another volunteer, Barb, who was also headed in that direction, and off they went. There were two advisories sent out:
After purchasing his Pants of Snake Protection +2, Zach and Barb got back on the road, where they eventually found themselves at an intersection with no power and enough standing water that they might as well have been at the edge of a lake. Everyone has been told not to go near standing water, so Zach called around, looking for friends with Internet who could navigate him where he needed to go, and although this involved backing up an exit ramp onto a highway going the wrong way, everything has more or less worked out.
The shelter guy Zach was taking the supplies to told him to just bring them in the morning, so he headed to the staff shelter, which was hastily set up in a high school in Weslaco. When he arrived, there weren't any cots, but the cots showed up a little before I talked to him. He tells me they are awesome cots. There isn't any bedding, though, and he didn't take any with him, so he's using his ruck as a pillow and hoping for the best. Barb is sleeping in the car. The high school is full of dead palmetto bugs the size of his fist. There is only one working locker room, so the showers are co-ed, but they have a sign. The air conditioning works, which is more than can be said for the other shelter -- that's why this one was hastily set up. It's the back-up shelter, where they went when the a/c went out at the primary shelter. There are about 60 people at the shelter with him. He's drinking a lot of water and eating crackers.
Despite the pretty rough conditions, he sounds like he's doing well.
I... would like to keep myself out of these narratives, but I'm not sure how to talk about the next thing without talking about Katrina. That was the last time Zach went out, almost three years ago; I was out there, too, though we weren't deployed to the same locations. I don't need to say that Katrina was huge, or that it was a mess, or that the relief efforts were poorly organized and often ill-conceived. A huge number of people were involved, the vast majority of whom had no experience and little training and even less of an idea what they were getting into. So, yeah, it was a mess.
Dolly, while still a mess because it's a disaster, and disasters are messy, is not that sort of mess. Zach reports that most of the people there have been out on DRs before, and they are competent and experienced and maybe they don't know what's going on, but it doesn't matter all that much. You figure it out and you do what needs to be done with the tools you have at hand. He's pretty confident they'll be able to do this. I'm not even sure that makes any sense, but really, it's all about attitude and experience and training and intuition, and the more you do it, the more you have it. So, from my cozy armchair far away from the dead palmetto bugs, I feel pretty good about things.
Tomorrow Zach will be getting up pretty early, heading to the emergency shelter to drop off supplies, and then trying to locate his Feeding boss guy. He thinks he might be going out on an ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle; those are the trucks that deliver meals), but he doesn't know for sure.
If you have anything you'd like me to pass along to him, you can comment here or e-mail him, and I will pass along the message. Also, if you want to talk to him, let me know what times are good, and I'll see how I do at playing personal assistant.
In sum, Zach is awesome. But you all knew that.
He arrived with only some minor hassles (e.g., his flight was theoretically on Delta but actually was Northwest, which caused some confusion), but he had the foresight to wear a Red Cross shirt on the way, and so he hooked up with two other people who were headed his way, and they were able to rent a car and get themselves to headquarters in San Antonio. I think he said they were at Kelly Air Force Base.
I don't know how many of you were around the last time Zach went out on a DR, or know much about what goes on, but basically what's supposed to happen is that you show up at HQ, get checked in, get your assignment, talk to your boss, get settled, and start working. What actually happens is you get there, and there is massive confusion and chaos and no one is really sure what's going on, and everyone is very busy trying to figure things out, and eventually, after much waiting and chaos, everything gets sorted. This DR is no different, except today there was bonus confusion because they're shutting down the headquarters in San Antonio and moving them elsewhere tomorrow. So a bunch of people were gone and incommunicado, and there was an extra helping of No One Knows What's Going On.
Eventually, Zach reached the guy in Feeding (part of Mass Care, which is what he's been deployed to do) who is supposed to be his boss, and that guy told him to report in to the new headquarters (I think). So Zach headed out, but he rented a Ford Explorer, and so he loaded it up with supplies for an emergency shelter they're opening tomorrow in Harlingen. There is a levee that may or may not have been broken by muskrats. No one is sure -- communication is horrid (as expected), but the rumor mill is fantastic (also as expected) -- if the levee is really broken or how many evacuees there might be, but Zach thinks probably 1,000. The largest number he's heard is 6,500.
Anyway, so Zach loaded up the Explorer with supplies for the emergency shelter, and he grabbed another volunteer, Barb, who was also headed in that direction, and off they went. There were two advisories sent out:
- Poisonous snakes & spiders. Wear long pants.
- Very very hot. Wear shorts.
After purchasing his Pants of Snake Protection +2, Zach and Barb got back on the road, where they eventually found themselves at an intersection with no power and enough standing water that they might as well have been at the edge of a lake. Everyone has been told not to go near standing water, so Zach called around, looking for friends with Internet who could navigate him where he needed to go, and although this involved backing up an exit ramp onto a highway going the wrong way, everything has more or less worked out.
The shelter guy Zach was taking the supplies to told him to just bring them in the morning, so he headed to the staff shelter, which was hastily set up in a high school in Weslaco. When he arrived, there weren't any cots, but the cots showed up a little before I talked to him. He tells me they are awesome cots. There isn't any bedding, though, and he didn't take any with him, so he's using his ruck as a pillow and hoping for the best. Barb is sleeping in the car. The high school is full of dead palmetto bugs the size of his fist. There is only one working locker room, so the showers are co-ed, but they have a sign. The air conditioning works, which is more than can be said for the other shelter -- that's why this one was hastily set up. It's the back-up shelter, where they went when the a/c went out at the primary shelter. There are about 60 people at the shelter with him. He's drinking a lot of water and eating crackers.
Despite the pretty rough conditions, he sounds like he's doing well.
I... would like to keep myself out of these narratives, but I'm not sure how to talk about the next thing without talking about Katrina. That was the last time Zach went out, almost three years ago; I was out there, too, though we weren't deployed to the same locations. I don't need to say that Katrina was huge, or that it was a mess, or that the relief efforts were poorly organized and often ill-conceived. A huge number of people were involved, the vast majority of whom had no experience and little training and even less of an idea what they were getting into. So, yeah, it was a mess.
Dolly, while still a mess because it's a disaster, and disasters are messy, is not that sort of mess. Zach reports that most of the people there have been out on DRs before, and they are competent and experienced and maybe they don't know what's going on, but it doesn't matter all that much. You figure it out and you do what needs to be done with the tools you have at hand. He's pretty confident they'll be able to do this. I'm not even sure that makes any sense, but really, it's all about attitude and experience and training and intuition, and the more you do it, the more you have it. So, from my cozy armchair far away from the dead palmetto bugs, I feel pretty good about things.
Tomorrow Zach will be getting up pretty early, heading to the emergency shelter to drop off supplies, and then trying to locate his Feeding boss guy. He thinks he might be going out on an ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle; those are the trucks that deliver meals), but he doesn't know for sure.
If you have anything you'd like me to pass along to him, you can comment here or e-mail him, and I will pass along the message. Also, if you want to talk to him, let me know what times are good, and I'll see how I do at playing personal assistant.
In sum, Zach is awesome. But you all knew that.