Date: 2005-11-03
To: Gulf Coast Wrap-up
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

The first days of working with FEMA were filled with frustration, boredom, and disbelief. Check-in was smooth where Karl and I touched down on Sept 7. We got a rental car and signed in at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Atlanta. For the day, we had to become federal employees, apply for federal credit cards, get a cell phone, and inoculations. It all moved pretty smoothly and left time to catch one of the afternoon training classes.About 200 firefighters were gathered in a conference room to receive our first training before being deployed to the devastated areas. We were excited to be here and get out into the field. FEMA was interested in getting us down here ASAP so Karl and I chose to leave Tuesday instead of later in the week. To do that I had to rush the night before and only got a few hours of sleep. It was a stressful time for me to get home and work squared away so quickly, but I pushed myself to get it done.Jaws dropped to the floor in utter dismay. Sexual harassment training? Diversity training? Are you kidding me? Yep, we sat through four hours of mandated politically correct government "training". I think I reflect the views of most firefighters at this training in that political correctness has nothing to do with firefighting, performing rescue work, or assisting disaster victims. This was the start of 10 wasted days. Seems everyone was in Biloxi, but not us. Karl and I would watch the TV at night and see Katie Couric, recording artists, and movie stars on ground zero. The coverage would switch to the mayor of some affected town pleading for assistance and asking, "where is FEMA"? Hey, we're right here, sitting on our butts in a cushy hotel room!Day after day Karl and I sat, watched a little TV, and got in a game of Ultimate Frisbee when we could. There was a delay in our deployment because members of our team did not have credit cards and they kept assembling and reassembling the deployment teams. FEMA sensed the natives were getting restless and tried various ploys to calm us down and give us information. What we got was government spin instead. Being firefighters we have special skills and heightened senses because mistakes can mean we get hurt or killed. One of those senses is a bullshit detector. Of the mistakes FEMA made from the beginning, the first two were that since we are paramilitary, they thought we would do as we are told and, second, they thought they could lie to us. A FEMA man named Tony said he would level with us, but he would never answer the questions we asked. In the room full of hundreds of firefighters, he would always start answering the question and then go back to his taking points. We'd look at each other in the audience in disbelief. "Does he think we're buying any of this?"FEMA's second try was getting one of our own, Dr. so-and-so, a retired Battalion chief. He shed some light on why FEMA hired us instead of people in the community to do Community Relations (CR) work. Seems after the hurricanes in Florida last year, FEMA accidentally hired some felons and gave them government credit cards. The felons promptly rented a car, bought a rather large boat and trailer on their government plastic, and were never heard from again.We were chosen not because we were totally overqualified for this mission but because we are certified good guys with background checks, have medical knowledge, deal with emergency situations, and, oh yes, are great for PR.The last of our wasted days were spent in sunny, hot and humid Orlando. There we were being trained in Individual Assistance. That means we sit behind a computer all day and try to answer the "where is my money; my neighbor got a check yesterday" question. No one was going for this or the bomb that they dropped on day two of training: we want you to answer phones. Many questions were asked about why they wanted us to do that. It's not what we signed up for and that skill set is readily available elsewhere. A career firefighter said he would not be able to tell his chief that he went away for 30 days to answer phones, he needed a real assignment to justify being there. All the firefighters here readily agreed that our skills could be better used back in our communities than sitting in cubicles answering phones.The line in the sand was drawn and a hand voted was taken. "Who will go home if they are sent to the phone centers?" Almost every firefighters hand was raised. FEMA now has a problem. Eighty firefighters are about to walk out the door unless they do something. How do you make FEMA make a decision? Apply pressure.Within an hour, FEMA officials had an "important assignment" for 50 firefighters in Biloxi Mississisippi. The said they would charter a jet for us and fly us down tomorrow morning. Our team, like many others in Orlando, knew better to leave the logistics and planning to FEMA. Our cell phones came out and we started looking for cars. As CR employees we need to be able to drive from community to community. Guess what? No cars in Biloxi. We informed the FEMA managers of this problem and they decided we should drive there instead.The next day my team showed up first at the Imperial Palace hotel - a hurricane battered hi-rise which had intermittent power and water you couldn't drink. Jon, our group leader at the time, asked the $10,000 question when we checked in. "Did you know we were coming?""No. How many more of you will there be?" came the answer. Ahhh FEMA. Throughout our deployment there were many many examples of FEMA losing people's whereabouts or not telling a camp there were 50 newbies showing up the next day. They call it "FEMA flexible". I call it incompetent.We did nothing in Biloxi except sightsee the coastline and try to get a CR assignment in another area. Our group of fifty was sent west to Camp Stennis, which is on the NASA base of the same name. Stennis couldn't use all of us so we were divided in half and redeployed EAST past Biloxi to Camp Gautier ("go-SHAY").Camp Gautier was based in Gautier High School. Since school was cancelled until October, we had full use of the building and grounds. We slept on cots in the gymnasium and had trailers that provided showers, laundry, and the food service. We spent 10 days at Camp Gautier and learned many things about working with FEMA. Our camp was entirely made of firefighters - no FEMA people in the command structure. Maybe that's why things worked so well and people were actually helped.(for a little while, more on that later)Our team of eight was assigned to help out in the Disaster Relief Centers (DRCs), pass out information on FEMA and mold, help organize the PODs (point of distribution: clothes food, etc.) and distribute ice and water to the people of Moss Point and Pascagoula.Most everone we talked to had a story to tell about their home, surviving the hurricane, or what they were doing to piece their life back together. FEMA told us we'd be listening to a lot of stories. I'm glad I was on the receiving end of them too. After a tragedy such as this, people were desparate to share their story with others. I know they've probably told the story 50-100 times so far, but they need to be heard, they need to tell it so they can heal themselves. I also got to experience what wonderful people live in Mississippi.Karl noticed I picked up a drawl in no time. It was quite easy for me since I picked up a little southern accent during my thru hike of the Appalachian Trail the year prior. It's like riding a bike.The firefighters at Gautier also set up a TEHOC (Temporary Emergency Housing Operations Center) This essentially gets people travel trailers to live in if they need temporary housing. Many people are living with relatives, getting by in one or two rooms of their home, or living in tents or shelters. This program gets them their own space to live in while they rebuild or decide what their next move is.As one firefighter said during the stand-off in Orlando, "we are can-do people". The TEHOC program really let our colors shine. We don't sit around, we like to do things for others, we like to organize ourselves, and we like to make things as efficient as possible. We are very proud to have had delivered 2500 trailers in the same amount of time FEMA delivered only 800 to the victims of the Florida hurricanes last year. For the short period of time we activated the trailer program, we more than tripled FEMA's numbers. Our success led us to expand the program to more counties in Misissippi. Six in total now. Our high school home was going to get students soon and the expanded trailer program necessitated that Camp Gautier dispurse and send firefighters to different areas in the state. Our team of eight was sent to Camp Lusk in Poplarville which is a part of Pearl River county. This is much more "in the sticks" than the coastal counties we originally worked in.Camp Lusk and the adjoining EOC was on the USDA's property. We lived in an air-conditioned tent city and had the same facilities (showers, food, and laundry) as Gautier, but on a smaller scale. The work here had a different flow than the coastal counties. On the coast, residents always came to us in the DRCs for trailers and then we would go inspect the site before the trailer was placed on the land. In Pearl River County they would call us and we would do the application, pre-inspection, and get signatures at the trailer site.So, why the change you may ask? We never got a straight answer why, but we were no longer allow to work out of the FEMA DRCs. Our best guess is that the firefighters are showing up FEMA on a grand scale and FEMA is protecting its turf (its identity, its ego). You'd think in the situation of disaster relief, outperforming FEMA would be a good thing. Go figure. It's human personalities and frail egos were talking about here. Much the same situation can be found in the corporate world.Driving around and locating houses/trailers can be difficult. Many of the signs have blown down and there are many private drives that are not on our maps. Some days we drive over 100 miles and work sun-up to sundown to do pre-inspections. It is rewarding to make a difference in people's lives and to also receive thanks from the people we help. Some folks got teary-eyed when they hear we are firefighters from northern states. (yankees, no less ) They are glad we took the time to come down and help them.We ran the trailer program until most of the firefighters left in the first week of October. Approximately 2000 firefighters were called into the affected states and shelters across the US. About 60 firefighters will remain in the area to help some of the programs continue while other relief workers are rotated in or hired from the local populations.I got a lot of insight into FEMA and into myself from this adventure in Mississippi. Like I did on the trail, I'll post a little analysis of how all this relates to me and my life and what I learned from the experience.I'd like to close with a little Green Day. There was a bit of irony that this song came out near the same time Hurricane Katrina hit."Wake Me Up When September Ends"Summer has come and passedThe innocent can never lastwake me up when september endslike my fathers come to passseven years has gone so fastwake me up when september endshere comes the rain againfalling from the starsdrenched in my pain againbecoming who we areas my memory restsbut never forgets what I lostwake me up when september endssummer has come and passedthe innocent can never lastwake me up when september endsring out the bells againlike we did when spring beganwake me up when september endshere comes the rain againfalling from the starsdrenched in my pain againbecoming who we areas my memory restsbut never forgets what I lostwake me up when september ends