Red Cross Update - Standby Once Again

I'm home and tired - despite sleeping from roughly 8am to 3:30pm. I think part of it is too much sleep leaving me tired....and headachy if that makes sense. My laptop harddrive has gotten worse - it's sticking so I'm backing up email as I type this and will hit the My Documents directory before going to bed. I have a replacement HD to move to soon - just know that it will take me a few to get back to email.

It seemed to be not as many people on the 2am flight. It was the same plane. A lot more children and men outnumbered women by almost 4 to 1. We also apparently had six snakes and there were rumors of a goat, birds and squirrels on this plane.

I tried to get in and be a "greeter" but I was truly fearful of what I would encounter. Perhaps it was fear of the unknown and feeling too fatigued to deal with my emotional state. I didn't feel I had the power to put empathy-shields up should I need to. But I did get out from behind the Mass Care tables to cheer as people got off the plane and spent about 10min getting and handing out plates of ham, mac & cheese, American Chop Suey, and Franks & Beans to the evacuees as they got off the plane.

I heard a few stories from my new, good friends who were greeters - Yacine and Jess. They talked about one man who brought two black mutts with him. He saved their life while they saved his - he rescued them from a locked house. When he was upstairs in his and sleeping prior to the water rising, looters broke in and the dogs chased them away. He felt he would be dead if they hasn't done so.

I've also heard of several people who were angry and upset at essentially being forced to leave and not being told their destination. While many were placated and quite relieved and excited about the warm welcome we gave them, many simply did not want to be there.

FEMA is "delivering" evacuees to different states based on a rotation schedule. Our "day" was yesterday and we don't come up again until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, I will be going down to the Mass Bay Waltham office to get my remaining Disaster Training for going South at some point.

Currently, the folks who arrived last night are in their housing and Red Cross volunteers are helping them fill out forms to get monetary aid and other paperwork to get them onto their "new" lives. I heard rumors that those doing CORI Criminal Record checks were also taking photographs and eye scans for biometric tracking. No confirmation but interesting nonetheless.

Not sure if I went in detail about the "process". The plane arrived, various Air Marshalls secured the plane, the Governor and CEO of the Mass Bay Chapter of the Red Cross welcomed them and they started to deboard. "Greeters" like Jess and Yacine would escort people off the plane through a "gauntlet" of well-wishers that included people from Massport's CARE group.

They would then be pulled out to use the restrooms or take a shower in the "Tent Showers" supplied with water via a giant tanker truck. Their first stop was "Registration" where they had their background checked and was given a temporary Massachsuetts State ID.

Then they were brought through medical including triage and mental health counselling. Their next stop was housing which took AGES. Come to think of it, it really took them a long time to get these people all the way through.

Last stop is Red Cross registration so people know who and where they are. Finally...they arrive at Red Cross Mass Care which is the area I was at. This is where we handed out diapers, formula, clothes, shoes, slippers, toiletries, snacks, drinks etc. The Salvation Army had a place with cribs and loads of toys plus a TV showing various movies to keep the kids busy. It was probably one of the best places to be next - to look over and see these kids who have been through hell enjoying themselves and being happy.

On another morbid note, I'm increasingly disturbed about what I hear regarding the standing water in NOLA - ten times worse than Love Canal says EPA Senior Policy Analyst Hugh Kauffman. Plus there were Manatee living in Lake Pontchartrain where the water is now being pumped. Just stunning. I despair over the immediate epidemiological implications not to mention the complete environmental destruction of the Mississippi Delta.

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