Aftermath (Part 1) (609 hits)
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Submitted by Goose <goosehkr at hotmail dot com> (View user info) at 2005-09-28 10:14:47 EDT
I was part of a relief crew that went down to Louisiana in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, which I announced on uber at http://www.ubersite.com/m/74377 . This is the first part of the story of what happened on the way down and in the disaster area itself.
Thursday, 01 September 2005
I was sitting at my desk playing Tetris when my boss Charlie gives me a call. I should explain: I have a number of jobs - one standard 9-5, and four or five other interesting jobs working with staging and production companies around the DC/Metro area. I got started working as a stagehand at the Patriot Center, and branched out from there. Anyway, he called me at 10am, and said he was putting a team together to go down to Louisiana to help with the relief work. He didn't have many details, but it would involve construction in some way. We would be leaving the next day. He understood that I have other responsibilities, but he figured he would ask me if I was interested. I told him I would call him back in a couple of hours.
Of course I was interested, but I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous, too. Reports had just started coming out of New Orleans concerning how bad things were down there. I wasn't sure if it was a situation I really wanted to insert myself into. A good friend of mine from college works a few floors above me, so I wandered upstairs and talked it over with him. He helped cement the idea that this was something I should do. How many opportunities do you get to make a difference like this? It is unlikely that, at any other point in my life, would I have the freedom to pick up and disappear for two weeks like this.
The problem, however, was my boss. There are two office managers who run the entire operation, and I wind up picking up whatever slack they can't cover, along with my regular duties. On Wednesday, the main office manager, a former girlfriend of mine, was let go, the details of which are still unclear. The other woman had put in for vacation time four months ago, to start two weeks from now. I had to talk my boss into letting me leave on 24 hours notice for two weeks, during which time our office would be cut from three support people to just one. He agreed if I promised to be back before our one lady left on vacation. He made it clear that if I wasn't back by then, to not come back at all. Then he agreed to let me go.
I had intrigued my buddy upstairs, and he wanted to go as well. I called my boss Charlie back, and asked if he was still looking for people, and that I was in. He said he was, and my buddy went to his boss with the same request I had gone to mine with. Not only was his boss thrilled about it, he offered to buy us supplies. Neither one of us could sit still for the rest of the day.
After we got off at work, I was due at another one of my jobs; I work part time at an army surplus store. I started there because the manager is a friend of mine, and he was looking for extra help for a couple of weeks a few months ago. I wound up just staying on. I explained the situation to him, and I spent most of my three hour shift equipping for heading south into Louisiana and Mississippi. Keep in mind that we had no idea what the conditions were going to be like, and I like to be prepared for every eventuality. We loaded up on MREs, mosquito repellant, snake bite kits, and extra socks.
My buddy and I grabbed a couple of burgers, a couple of beers, and left to go grab some sleep.
Friday, 02 September 2005
I woke up at my normal time, and headed into work like nothing was different. We weren't scheduled to leave until two, and I told my boss that I would come in for a couple hours in the morning to get as much work done as I could until I had to leave. It was a waste of time, anyway, because everyone in the office knew where I was going, and they spent the whole morning coming by to wish me luck.
At 12:30, I took off for home to go and pack. I brought along a few changes of clothes, lots and lots of socks, and everything I could think of that I could ever possibly need. I'm a paranoid son of a bitch, and I hate being in a situation unprepared. So, in addition to the MREs, I had water purification tablets, a collapsible shovel, a titanium crowbar, bolt cutters, a 12-guage Remington pump-action shotgun, and 100 rounds of double-ought ammunition. Like I said, the news coming out of New Orleans wasn't good. My boss Charlie was bringing his sawed-off, as well.
We were all meeting at the Patriot Center, and Charlie was coming down from Baltimore with a 30-ft RV that the company that was supplying us had rented for us to take down to New Orleans and live in. If anyone know about the traffic in DC, he wound up being two hours late, which gave me plenty of time to do a meet-n-greet with the other people I would be spending the next two weeks with in very close proximity. (I'm changing the names, in case anyone was wondering. My boss's name isn't Charlie, either, in case you were wondering.) There was John, a guy I had worked with on and off for the past couple of years, who had just gotten home from Florida; Amelia, who I had heard of but never met, since she was a stagehand around the area as well; Dan and Rick, who I actually used to know back in high school but hadn't seen in the past few years; BJ, who I had never met or heard of, but who was friends with Amelia; Bill, my college buddy from three floors up; and Pat.
When they finally arrived, I discovered there were two additional people as well: Autumn, a friend of Charlie's from Las Vegas, and Leslie, some girl from outside of Baltimore. The RV was fully stocked with three or four days of food, as well as four spare generators and 20 extra five-gallon jerry cans. All these supplies, along with all of our crap, meant that room was a little tight. Additionally, the ten of us would be spending the next two weeks in a camper designed for six people.
So, at 4:30, we were off! Directly into the beginning of DC's rush hour traffic. Our first scheduled stop was for some town in Virginia right before the border of Tennessee. For anyone who has never driven through it, Virginia is a big-ass state. I know it doesn't compare to many of the states out west, but Jesus, it takes forever. We made it to this town well after dark. The highlight of this little podunk hellhole is the Wal*Mart, which turned out to be the biggest goddamned Wal*Mart I've ever seen. We stopped so people could grab whatever they hadn't brought along with them, and Charlie picked up some more food. I personally bought a $10 sleeping bag and a $5 pillow, since I had forgotten to bring a blanket or anything. Everyone else picked up their assorted crap, and then Charlie turned us loose on the Taco Bell - he had budgeted $10/person/meal, so we were going eat a lot of fast food on the way down. The ten of us head over, and the place is packed, or so it seems. Remember, it's around midnight on a Friday, and the parking lot is completely full. The 'Bell, itself, is empty. Apparently, in this town, every goddamned kid who could get out of the house goes to hang out in the Taco Bell parking lot. Civilized city slicker motherfuckers that we are, everyone finds this absolutely hysterical. Even better than this is how all of these kids interact, which deserves a post all its own. However, what really made it was the running color commentary that Bill and BJ were making about these kids the whole time we were there. It's the only time I've ever choked on refried beans. John went outside and actually went from car to car asking for weed, but he's a scary tattooed bastard and nobody would sell to him.
We all piled back onto the RV, filled out tank (for over $200) and went on our way. We were roughly sixteen hours outside of Louisiana.
TBC
User Reviews
Submitted by kimmy02721 (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:46:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I can't believe this series didnt get more reviews, this was awesome.
Submitted by Bizantine (user info) at 2005-10-20 13:41:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-10-04 14:03:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Part 3 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/76430
Submitted by NOWorNEVER (user info) at 2005-09-29 15:49:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for going down there... i really want to but work and school is tying me down.
i used to do stage stuff in DC... at GW and at some theater in roslyn... been to the patriot center lots of times but never worked a show there. fun stuff, kind of miss it.
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-09-29 15:25:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Part 2 is up - http://www.ubersite.com/m/76152
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-09-29 09:00:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah, no joke - the ice shows are the worse. Nothing spells fun like standing around for 12 hours covered in antifreeze waiting for the ice to thaw enough to shovel it into the back of a truck.
I actually haven't been in theatre real long - I started a couple of years ago, but only truly gained an understanding of how it becomes your life about nine months ago. I dated a stagehand for awhile, and she really opened my eyes to how the life completely absorbs you.
The Patriot Center is on a university campus (George Mason, to be specific) and its funny, because none of the stagehands at the Performing Arts center will talk to any of the PC kids, and vice versa. There was some falling out between the two crews years ago, and everyone is still all standoffish about it. Ah, university politics.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-28 23:16:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm usually on either carp or electrics, but I'm furiously attempting to learn rigging. And audio. I'm a pretty small person, so I'm not usually actually on the loading dock crew (there's always the standard wheeling road cases out of trucks and such, but as to actually hauling shit out of the trucks... Not so much). I work at a university center for the performing arts type place, and we get some decent-sized shows through. Le Mis came through a few years ago, as did Miss Saigon. I didn't work on either of those shows, but we get a few big tours through per year, and a bunch of smaller ones. I do volunteer work around my town, mostly in lighting, but whatever, really.
Beauty and the Beast On Ice almost came through this season, but they cancelled or some shit like that. So at least we don't have to deal with that mess.
How long have you been in theater?
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-28 18:17:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have to go but I will reply more later tonight. Just in case you were sitting by the computer hitting 'refresh' every five seconds or something.
What?
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-09-28 16:00:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-28 15:30:49 (#)
Ranking: 2
It is great that you actually went out and did something to help.
You're a stagehand?! What do you do? What types of shows/whatever do you usually work on? How long have you done that sort of work? I NEED TO KNOW, DAMNIT.
Translation: I am also stagehand, and am working on some sort of degree in technical theater. So I am intrigued.
Well, as one of the big guys, I spend a lot of time on the loading dock - we have a really bad dock, and we have to ramp everything up. When I actually get inside, I normally work with the sound guys. I also do a lot of staging, but my favorite part is working one of the spotlights during the show.
Most recently was a boxing match (Lange/Ballard, and Lange kicked some ass, knockout in the 4th, woo!), and the show before that was the Wiggles. I still have those damn songs stuck in my head. Coming up we've got Beck, the Foo Fighters and Weezer, Gwen Stefani and the Black Eyed Peas, and some Disney on Ice production. I also work here and there at a couple of the smaller clubs in the city, and freelance for a couple of other events companies.
How about you?
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-28 15:30:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It is great that you actually went out and did something to help.
You're a stagehand?! What do you do? What types of shows/whatever do you usually work on? How long have you done that sort of work? I NEED TO KNOW, DAMNIT.
Translation: I am also stagehand, and am working on some sort of degree in technical theater. So I am intrigued.
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-09-28 12:37:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There's plenty more, no worries - quite a bit can happen over the course of 10 days.
Submitted by mcgee3394 (user info) at 2005-09-28 12:20:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
would like to read more
Submitted by Barnymeinhoff (user info) at 2005-09-28 10:29:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Looking forward to the rest of this.