update on my update

Tonight we are sleeping in a real bed. With pillows. And in a warm room. The hotel opened back up today. We are on the 7th floor. Only the first floor was flooded. No hot water, but that doesn't matter to us. Really appreciating the small things.

Our boys left for hunting yesterday. They are sleeping on cots. No hot water. And loving every minute. Guess it all depends on your perspective. LOL

This entry was going to tell you all about what we were doing in our jobs at Headquarters. Things change rather quickly around here. Roger & I are not there any longer. On Saturday night we were having a late dinner when we got a phone call asking us to move to Binghamton, NY. There was major flooding there and we were to help set up another HQ. On Sunday morning we headed out, with Roger driving a big truck loaded with cots and blankets and me following behind. Roger’s commercial drivers’ license that he had for driving a school bus has come in really handy this trip.

Binghamton is sited where 2 rivers come together: the Susquehanna and the Chenango. Both of these rivers were swollen from Irene and then Tropical Storm Lee came ashore, too. A lot of the downtown area was flooded out, including the local Red Cross chapter office. They set up an Emergency Operation Center in one of the fire stations in the area.

Over 20,000 people were evacuated and we currently are housing over 3,000 people in several shelters. That number doesn’t include the several hundred Red Cross workers in staff shelters.

The housing accommodations are different here than they were in Albany. We had a motel room there. Here we have been in several different places. Currently I am staying in the women’s’ staff shelter in the gym of a local church. It’s much nicer than the last place we had that had boasted one bathroom and no showers for the 65+ women staying there. LOL. Roger is staying in the men’s’ staff shelter in the activity room of a children’s home. They at least have 2 showers, although until yesterday, they didn’t have any hot water. We each have a cot and blanket issued to us. Lights out at 10pm, lights on at 6am. Same rules as in the shelters we set up for the evacuees. It sure helps us to have a better understanding of how they feel.

Some of the businesses are starting to open back up, although you can tell that they had been damaged. People are starting to be allowed to go back to their homes to start the clean up process. One of the things we do is hand out clean-up supplies: buckets, shovels, bleach, face masks, gloves, boxes of garbage bags. And then our mobile feeding units drive through those same neighborhoods handing out meals, snacks and drinks. There aren’t many places close to them where they can buy food. And right now their main focus is cleaning.  

Roger & I are both in logistics here. In Albany I was working in Staffing. It’s amazing how many behind the scenes people it takes to get the food and cleaning supplies out to the people and also provide housing and daily meals. Fork lift drivers, cooks, warehouse workers, data entry, nurses, doctors, mental health workers, shelter workers, truck drivers, shuttle drivers, janitors, security, EMTs, food servers, accountants, social workers, damage assessment workers, teachers, travel agents, etc.

It’s almost time for lights out, so I’d better finish. We put in some long hours when we are getting everything up and running. On a typical day we get to work about 7am and close up shop sometime between 8 and 9pm. So when the lights go out, we’re ready for sleep.

Good night.

Joanie

Just a quick update...we are working 12-13 hour days and are pretty tired at the end of the day, so this will be a short email. We have a day off on Friday and if we can get a little ways out of town, we may be able to take some pictures to send with the next update. Most people thing that Hurricane Irene is over and can't figure out while Red Cross is still here. I don't know how much press that the Northeast weather area is getting out West, but it's about the only thing here. Before the hurricane arrived here, New York & Vermont were besieged by storms. The ground was saturated and so when Hurricane Irene came in with it's high winds and heavy rain, the water had no place to go. The area that we are in around Albany , NY, is quite mountainous.(At least that's what I've heard. We've only seen the airport, our motel and the 2 miles to our work site at Red Cross Headquarters.) Many of the roads in the mountain areas are not paved. When Irene hit, trees fell and the rain turned the roads to mud and things slid down the mountain. Many people that live up on the mountains were cut off. One of the local volunteers told me about a family - father, mother and 2 small children - who walked into the closest little town. It took them 4 days, without food or water, to make the journey. There was no road left so they had to make their way over fallen trees and around mudslides. When they arrived in town, it was mostly destroyed, too. The Red Cross vehicles were at one of the few buildings that was still standing, handing out hot meals and setting up cots for the people to sleep in. They told officials that there were others still up on the mountain. Since the hurricane we have had severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flash floods and more rain is being forecast for the next 5 days. Shelters and feeding stations that were closed are being reopened and people that had returned to their homes to start cleaning up are being told to evacuate again. Several towns have been completely destroyed. At least 5 of the beautiful old covered bridges are gone now, too. Creeks that were once something that you could take your grand kids wading in are now raging rivers that have flooded everything around them and there is no sign that the waters will recede anytime soon. There are hundreds of people here with Red Cross from all over our country. All of us working towards the same goal: to make sure that the people who have been affected by this disaster have food to eat, a safe place to sleep, clothes and basic necessities and someone to listen. It's humbling to see how much these small things mean to someone who has lost everything. You'd think we had given them the world.

Hurricane Irene - Disaster Relief

I think today is Friday. We left home yesterday - Thursday I think -about 7am. After a couple of flights and one layover, we arrived in Albany, NY about midnight. By the time we got our rental car and checked in at the motel, it was close to 2. Up at 6:30am, showered and off to the Red Cross Headquarters. Worked til 7pm tonight - a short day - stopped for dinner - them home...our motel room. Answered a couple of emails, started my DR blog and now its off to bed and sleep. This is a really short entry tonight. Really tired. Will need to be at work by 7am tomorrow.

It's all worth it.