Katrina: Aftermath (Part 4) (486 hits)
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Submitted by Goose <goosehkr at hotmail dot com> (View user info) at 2005-10-20 11:25:38 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 fourth part of the story of what happened on the way down and in the disaster area itself.
Part 1 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/76034
Part 2 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/76152
Part 3 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/76430
Tuesday, 06 September 2005
Another day began at 4:30 in the morning, with the sun just barely peeking over the eastern wall of the lock. They served us scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast, both of which were nice and greasy, just the way I like them. On the way back up to our campsite, we were waylaid by our boss who told us to head back down to the clinic, which was right next to the mess tent. Since we were moving out of a secured area, and there was no guarantee that we would have access to fresh water, or any of the other comforts that make life bearable, we were getting immunizations before we left.
During the night, the US Public Health Service had moved in, and there were four or five uniformed nurses dispensing the injections. As soon as the word "shot" was mentioned, two of our crew members panicked. One had a fear of needles, and one hated doctors and hospitals on general terms. She told me later that it stemmed from her mom being misdiagnosed when Leslie was just a little kid; her mom was eaten away by cancer as a result, and Leslie was orphaned and shipped off to family friends halfway across the country - a New York Jew with no family being mailed out to her mom's friends in the Midwest. Autumn's fears were easy to overcome - we ganged up on her and held her down while the nurses gave her the injections. While our boss was given the job of simultaneously calmed Autumn down and telling Leslie there was nothing to worry about, we all lined up for our shots. We were now invulnerable to two strains of hepatitis, tetanus, and diphtheria.
We all loaded into the RV, with Autumn giving us dirty looks and muttering about the "toxic waste" that had been put into her, and Leslie recovering from her hyperventilating (she walked up and got the shot herself, then promptly threw up as soon as she got out of the tent), and set off for Somewhere-in-the-Middle-of-Goddamned-Nowhere, Mississippi. We were heading to an established refugee shelter, housing a couple of thousand displaced New Orleanders that had actually fled before the storm hit, so they had been living there for over a week. I napped in the back during the drive, which took a couple of hours, and only woke up when we stopped at a Wal-Mart to load up on whatever supplies we didn't have. The Wal-Mart had been taken over by the National Guard, and only people working for or with FEMA or one of the other disaster relief agencies were allowed inside. I grabbed some Gatorade, since I had been loosing enough water and salt sweating so much in the heat, and then want back to sleep.
We finally came to the shelter around mid-afternoon, and it was quite a sight. It had been put up on a public horse grounds - the refugees had been put into the main building, and since the horses had all been evacuated by their owners, the stables had been converted into kennels, from which was coming an unholy din. This was the animal hospital that the SPCA had established to take in all of the abandoned dogs, and they were not happy about the situation. I don't know for sure how drastic the situation was, but they were over-full to the point of operating on the dogs outside of the stable out in the street, which is an unpleasant surprise when you're wandering around looking for a port-o-john.
We parked next to the stables with a few other campers, right next to, improbably enough, a Microsoft RV. They had been sent down to help get the communications back up and were setting up a wireless network. We were very excited; finally a chance to check our email and send messages back home, since the cell reception was more than a little spotty. Needless to say, Microsoft's network didn't work the entire time we were there.
The other crew we had been working with, the Hispanic guys, who were also hauling the building supplies with them, were late. Very late. In fact, they didn't show up that day at all - we finally decided to stop waiting for them once dark fell, because we didn't have enough generators to light the workspace. We had also gotten fed up with the howling from the dogs in the stable, and from the constant rumble of diesel engines; the parking lot at the shelter was a staging area for the power company cherry-picker trucks to head out to repair electric and communication lines. We decided to move our truck a couple of miles away, because the noise was getting to us all. We set up down the road in the parking lot of a collapsed shoe store, and a couple of hours later the other crew finally joined us. They had a couple of guys who were afraid of needles as well, except their guys ran off and hid, and it took them five hours to find them. They only came out of hiding after the Public Health Service ran out of injections.
Wednesday, 07 September 2005
This was the hardest day of all. Not because of the cold MREs for breakfast, or the backbreaking work in the heat of summer in Mississippi, and not completely because of the injections from the day before making two of our crew sick.
By the time we were putting down the floor for the second or third tent, the refugees housed nearby had noticed us and had come out to watch. One little girl walked up with her mom, all excited that they were moving out of the hallways of the building, and might actually get a cot to sleep on.
We had to tell her that no, these tents were for the national guardsmen who would be coming soon.
The look on her face would break your heart.
TBC
User Reviews
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-03-24 02:06:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I missed you.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-10-22 21:33:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Meal Ready to Eat.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2005-10-22 15:16:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by kimmy02721 (user info) at 2005-10-21 12:59:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
what is an 'MRE'?
It's a shame that this didn't get much more attention. this was great and extrememly well told. u should have taken pictures and posted them along with the stories. this will look awesome on a resume also. good on you Goose!
Submitted by Bizantine (user info) at 2005-10-20 13:40:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i've just finished reading all yours posts on this (so far). much respect, +2s, and such
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-10-20 12:09:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Fungah (user info) at 2005-10-20 11:51:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
-2 for helping people.