It’s Tuesday. Last night when we returned, we were able to go in to the church building for a shower! Yes! A shower! There was a generator, but not for lighting purposes. It was for a recovery company. There were ‘turbo fans’ through the hallways of the church to help dry the carpet. Cables running along the floor. It was pitch black. It would almost be hard to tell you were in a church. Amazing how lack of light changes ones perception. 
I could hear people conversing here and there in the background. Other relief volunteers. Most of which were at the Convoy of Hope site. There was of course, a line to wait in for a shower. My towel already seemed wet just from the humidity. The shower had running water, but no hot water. I think my body actually sizzled as the cold water hit it. It’s not very easy to shower by the glow of a flashlight. That was the most refreshing cold shower I’ve ever had. I thought of how many times I turned the hot water off on my daughter who enjoys 40 minute showers. I made my way through the church hallways, and navigated through the broken glass in the parking lot from the shattered steeple window. By the time I reached the camper, I was in a full sweat again. So much for the shower.
So this morning when I woke up, I was soaked with sweat. I woke up every 15 minutes looking at my watch wondering if it was time to get up yet. I just wanted it to be morning. I finally fell asleep around 4am (I think).
A funny side note. I could not find my fanny pack. I had my emergency money store in there. I remembered taking it off. I couldn’t believe I would be so foolish to misplace it. On the way to get in our vehicles and get over to the morning meeting, Kimberly noticed it on top of the pop-up. Guess I set it on there, while we were setting up the camper! haha.
We arrived at the site around 7:45. We had nice hot oatmeal for breakfast. (and of course, more gatorade). I worked up a hunger through the days to eat, but eating hot meals was difficult for me, since, you know, it was hot outside! Nightrunners.net is another volunteer group that teamed up with the Convoy of Hope. I can’t tell youhow thankful I am for the food they cooked up for us. Thank you nightrunners! Let me tell you - that is another worthwhile organization to donate to.
“Hurricane Nancy” (A term of endearment for a wonderful leader) alerted us at our morning meeting that they needed a crew of people to take a few vehicles into texas. About 40 miles away. She couldn’t tell us what we were going to do. Or what the conditions were going to be like. I just couldn’t get myself to volunteer for it. I felt I was already in quite deep.
I took a position on the line today. I took up the water position on station 3. There were 4 station or stops along the line of cars comming through the parking lot. As they stopped, we would load up their cars. My job was to load the water. 1 case, and 1 case only. Because much of the water that came to us wasn’t all in cases, or 24 packs. Some were 4 packs. Some were gallon jugs. But we needed to be careful not to appear to give 1 vehicle any more than the others. If other vehicles saw that, they would demand what they would see as the same treatment, and chaos would break out. Water, is a commodity.
Many, many families came through. We received many genuine teary eyed
thank you’s. By this time many people were pushing and asking for ice. One of the people told us why - the meat and goods in their freezers. Many times I had to step away from the line, as I would get choked up from hearing the stories. You can hear so many different versions of ‘I lost my everything’ so many different ways. Television really impersonalizes everything. Once in a while the N.A.P.S. students would start singing out a song in unison, as they were spread throughout the line. It was very encouraging! (this particular view is as if you were approching the line).
One this I forgot to mention is that these past few days, authority figures would come to our site for ice and water. Police had been on duty for days, working 12 hour shifts. The area ‘bosses’ (for lack of a better term) would come and get some supplies and drive it out to their troopers. Strangely enough - so did the military. Once in a while a Humvee would pull up with about 4 soldiers in that back of the tin can, wearing their BDU’s in 106 degree heat index. Here in the midwest when you walk up to a police vehicle, the officers are a bit skiddish and weary of your intentions. In this place, the officers would come to us in a way as if we were kings. We would load them up as well and them them so much for doing their duty. It was humbling.
The owner of the Hobby Lobby Store was more than willing to let us use their property to conduct our operations. The day before we were told that the owner of the plaza itself was not pleased that we had taken up so much of their real estate. I guess they had told Allstate insurance that they could use their lot. The owner was told what we were doing, but they still wanted to leave. We were expecting to have them come visit our site, and hope that it would change their mind. The COH alerted athorities that we may need their assitance in moving the site. They flat out denied the request. Why?? They did not want us to leave, so they would not escort us away. How cool is that?! We had to sit tight and hear what the owner of the plaza had to say to that.
Later in the day the manager for the Hobby Lobby came and took my place in the line so I could take a break. His name was David. For the life of me I can’t recall his last name. It was something French. It’s said like boo-vee I think. He was a great guy, and helped us out the rest of the week. He had just moved to the area 2 months agao, and his new house was now destroyed.
While I was eating lunch, we saw Air Force One helicopter fly over. It was much shinier than the usual drab helicopters that were thumping around us all day.
At 4:50 (10 minutes to the closing of the line) it rained the most wonderful rain I’ve ever felt! The smile returned to my face. Big fat heavy drops! I celebrated in it for a bit. Then it dawned on me, all the roofs that are still open or broke from Rita’s wrath. Because the Hobby Lobby roof was still leaky, the bathrooms were unavailable to us for a while for saftey reasons.
After dinner Kimberly took us on a little detour on the way back to base so we could get some pictures. We didn’t go too far off the main route because of the curfew. It looked like the military had been clearing off some roads, because you could actually see some roads now. Many hundred year old trees were snapped as if they were twigs. Television and these photos can’t do it justice.
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The road on the left there has already been cleaned up a bit. You can’t see the houses because the trees have fell on them and covered them. I had a picture that didn’t turn out. A tree in this homes yard fell over and pulled the front lawn up as if it were a carpet.
I think I’m getting used to the humidty or something now. I took a great cold shower, and got to phone my wife! Hanging my clothes up to dry for this night…
Technorati Tags: hurricane, katrina, rita, relief, hurricane blog
October 11th, 2005 at 7:03 am
Hurrican Relief Experience Day 4
Hurrican Relief Experience Day 4
October 11th, 2005 at 8:14 am
^Lestat, great pictures and write up about your experience carol
October 28th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
You are a very special person, may God bless you and all like you who went to the front lines of pain and suffering. I do Christian and Conservative Talk Radio,I would love to interview you . You have my email. please let me know. Jesus Loves You. Thank you for your heart. Deborah