Working during the hurricane effort

Yes, I know it has been quite a few days since I last updated here. To tell the truth it has been a little hectic. (please ignore any typos as I am very tired and the keyboard is floating around in my vision here!)

Among all the duties back home trying to get some semi-permanent forms of residence ready for hurricane survivors, my team got orders to deploy to Baldwin County, Alabama (that is one side of the Mobile Bay) and operate a Medical Needs Shelter.

One good thing is that the shelter was already set up once we arrived. Actually we were a reflief team sent down, and the shelter was already established and populated. In previous hurricanes we have arrived prior to its landfall and have to set up all the cots and so forth by ourselves.

A Medical Needs Shelter is a "newer" term and is for those people that need some sort of medical attention (more than a first aid nurse is prepared to give in a regular Mass Care Shelter like Red Cross runs) but does not quite require the amount of care and attention that a hospital admission warrants. So what we have are those people that are diabetic and need regiferation for their meds, those on nebulizer or oxygen, mental health needs and so forth.

We have quite a bunch here. Most of our patients are from Biloxi, Miss but we do have a few from New Orleans and other sections of Louisiana. They are a very interesting bunch and have had many stories to tell. A lot of them want to talk about how they have been cared for and I am quite surprised that most of them are quite happy with the care they have recieved prior to getting here. They talk of all the kindness and how they really understand why they had to sleep on a high school gym floor for a day or two before they got shipped to here. We had one very interesting gentleman that had to sleep on the streets of Biloxi for 2 nights. He is diabetic and his feet swole up to the point where his slippers had to be peeled off of him. He was so relieved to see the FEMA truck drive up he said. He and I shared farming stories and he had quite the interesting life. We have a large number of people who were willing to share stories from their life with anyone. They really seemed to enjoy just sharing with you.

One of our ladies is quite frail, but we have been treating her like a celeberty and have arranged to get her a make over and I act like a cabana boy for her and mix her martinis a few times a day (real ones too! She used some money and went out to get her supplies...so I shake, shake, shake) She wears her big glasses and enjoys all the attention she garners. She is really a sweet person.

One of our mental health patients went with me a few times on errands into the city and it really helped his condition. We tried to normalize his schedule by giving him cleaning chores and he would talk to you all about all these things that he was thinking. I notice that with his story I have switched to past tense. Well that is because today right as I was coming back on shift, we found a place for him. I didn't get the detail on where he was going, but he made sure to let me know that he appreciated the time I spent with him and helping him.

That has been the story off and on with these people (and that is what they are even though they are patients as well). We get them in, feed them and care for them, and then we help them find assisted living or apartments of their own. If they have family we give them a safe refuge until the family is ready to take them in. A few of our Mississippi folks, know that their buildings are okay (except for the lower 2 or 3 floors) and they are anxious to get back and save what they may. I wondered for a while how they knew this and asked one of them. They said that they had returned to get a change of clothes (or some of their meds...insert X for short run to my abode) and while they couldn't physically climb the stairs, they found someone who could and since they lived on the 4th floor or higher, their things were okay.

I have been working the night shift and serving as facility manager during the wee hours here. The security forces (mainly national guard and forestry service) come and eat with us and fill up on coffee for the late nights.

If anyone is taking the time to read this, I want to make something very clear to everyone based on what we are seeing here. We have a TV and many of the people here want to tune in a find out what is going on, but now every channel has to have a fund-raiser concert or a new special on the "state of the crisis" and both kinds of shows try to show the emotion with an emphasis on the horrible pictures of the destruction. Most of the survivors here have to turn away or begin crying. I know that it is a normal reaction, but what gets me the most is that during "big name star's" performance of the "big song" they have run the footage as well. It may sound silly but why do we show those images during a song at a fundraiser for the survivors, when it still hurts those affected so badly? Is the rest of America so shallow or callous that they would not send any help, unless they are guilted into it? I don't think so, but then again I don't make those kinds of decisions.

It is getting very early here now and I need to get some things ready for the day shift, so I wll end things here for now. Missing all my family and friends.