It actually got cold last night! Back home it would seem just right. I Left my sleeping bag in the trailer because I thought, “How cold could it get?” Mid 60’s I guess. Good thing I had packed a sheet in my gear.

Today they are going to open the city gates. Not entirely sure what that means. They are allowing people who evacuated to come back to the city to check on their homes and belongings. It’s also baby day. We have skids of donated diapers, wipes, and formula.
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I forgot to mention yesterday that some doctors had set up a free medical clinic here at the church. The picture is kind of grainy, but you get the point. They had donated medical supplies etc. I tossed and turned last night as usual due to the humidity. I was expecting it, so it didn’t seem so dramatic. The helicopters kept me awake. A side note: it’s hard to do what you gotta do in the middle of the night, while you are doing the mosquito dance!
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Since it rained yesterday, it cooled off and I was able to get to sleep by 10pm. I awoke to the steeple and moon all in my view from the window. But because of the rain you could sense this added heavyness in the air. While out and about our site last night, I was attacked by the “no seeums”. My ankles itched like mad. Noseeums are almost like mosquitos, but they are so small you can’t see them. Hence the name. We were off to the COH site for breakfast before our meeting.

I started in a position at station 4 as the ‘water boy’. Things were going pretty well for most of the morning. A lot of the water that came in today came from Miller breweries. They came in cases of glass bottles. They were heavy! Sometimes as I was dropping water or other supplies in the back or trunk of vehicles, I would see cases of beer or groceries. Continue reading…

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.

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

It’s the 26th today. I had 2 hours of sleep. I remember lying with my eyes open wondering if they caught all the looters or not, and if I was in any danger. Odd, it’s just as hot as it was when I went to sleep. The sun was bright, like it is at noon in Wisconsin.

Most of us walked around the ’site’ without direction for about 10 minutes. Rubbing our eyes, and trying to get a grip on the situation. There was a flurry of fork-lift activity and ‘foremen’ barking orders in the background. The tone wasn’t in a negative way, but had to be loud to be heard over the generators and the sound of the fork-lifts. Where did they come from?

Not to give out too much information, but man, I really had to ‘go’. I and a few others who had to do the same, were gathered in a group. Men and women. We were told we needed our flashlights, and to bring a gallon of water. I wasn’t sure where that was going to come from, but before I knew it - there were several gallons in front of the entrance to the Hobby Lobby.We were told that the store was damaged and flooded. We needed guides for both security and saftey. In the daylight, you could see the front of the damaged building now. It looked as if it were a building under construction. What it really was that Rita tore it up pretty bad. With a guide, flashlights and water, the front door to the store was unlocked and we proceeded in. It was pitch black, and we heard the sound of many fans blowing. They were from a recovery company who had already set up generators to begin their work. We sloshed through the black store. There was a strange smell in the air. We weaved in and out of what was aisles. The aisles and furniture were moved around to help dry them off. There was roof damage, and there was water dripping or standing everywhere. As we weaved throughout the shelving we finally got to the bathrooms. We took turns while our guide waited outside. Whoever had a free hand(pardon the expression) would hold a light. After you closed a deal, you would pour the water you brought into the back of the tank and flush. This was a quick lesson in modesty. Holding a light for someone you may not even know while they did whatever it is they needed to do.

(The trailers on the left were our sight for the night. The Giant Convoy of Hope setup was off to the right.)

We had a meeting as a team out beside our camp, and then went to have a meeting with those in charge. They too were quite to the point, and had to speak over the forklift traffic. We were assign positions in the area (though we were unsure of what some of the positions were exactly). It was stressed to us that we drink plenty of water throughout the day. That if we waited until we were thirsty - that it was already too late. We were also told that things can get emotional. That if they do - the best thing to do is walk away. The victims are already sensitive. They’ve lost their homes. They’ve lost everything they have.

There were more volunteers there than just us. There was a group of college kids from N.A.P.S based out of Alabama. There was also a handful of people from Michigan.

Positions kind of changed throughout the day. This wasn’t very regimented at first. It was almost like a partial ‘let’s see what happens when we do it like this’ routine. I have to imagine that all crisis are different. I did a little bit of everything. Eventually I found myself checking on people. Giving them breaks or giving them water.

The operation seemed mainly to get ice and water to people, as they drove through a controlled line with pylons. Most of the people that came through ‘the line’ did not leave when they were warned that the hurricane was comming. Though they didn’t have the means, or were just plain ignorant - it broke my heart none-the-less. Let’s just say that hurricanes, obviously, have no bias. I saw Jaguars, and Benzes come through the line. Yes these people had nice cars - but it was all they had left. I was once on the receiving end of charity. It really quite humbling.

I worked my way to the ‘backdoor’ of the parking lot. This was an even more intereseting position. Traffic out on the main street was designed to guid people through the line. Some people thought they could sneak their car into the backside of the parking lot. So this was a difficult position to man. Some people simply didn’t realize that they were just at the wrong entrance, and others were trying to sneak in. Though they were trying to get around a back way, it was difficult to see entire hot and sweaty families parched, and asking for help. I cried a lot. I was careful to turn away with it.

I heard someone mention the heat index was 106. We didn’t really have a source for news. But I tell ya it was hot! The humidty made it difficult to breathe. Before I knew it, I had become thirsty. Uh-oh! I began to drink water, but I just couldn’t cool down. There was no shade to be found. I sat down for a few minutes to get myself back together. It was like a sauna out there.

As the sun went down we shut down the line, and to moved our camp. We repacked up our campers and trailers and headed for a church a few blocks away. We setup camp in their parking lot. I didn’t look around the church or survey the site much. I was tired. I was hot. It was still hot after sundown. I still couldn’t cool down. I couldn’t get unsticky…

Technorati Tags: hurricane, rita, katrina, relief