Monday, September 19, 2005
Good Morning:
I have seemed to hit a wall today with activity. Had a miserable night last evening, too hot to sleep. The last two nights I've had to change sheets in the middle of the night because I'm sweating in bed. I thought it was a little better last evening but to no avail. That leads to my rash which is really irritating. Took a Benedryl last night to relieve the itch. Time for medicated powder and ac.
So today, I've decided to spend in the air conditioning of headquarters and take a break from the 90+ heat and humidity.
I really don't know what I'll be assigned today so I'll snoop around here with the paper shufflers and find something interesting to do.
Yesterday was another interesting day. Bob and I started out by stopping at the Hampton Inn in the morning and sitting in their air conditioned lobby and reading the Sunday paper. A great pleasure. All the hotels are booked here through the end of the year. Solid.
A few gentlemen arrived in the lobby and set up an impromptu meeting. They were from FEMA and were reviewing a report by two men who had completed the wind damage survey of the area. They were establishing the official wind estimates from the hurricane. It was there belief based on the damage data that the winds were not quite as strong as originally projected. This was all data driven and will eventually be the basis for new building codes, etc. Bob and I moved over and kind of joined the discussion. They were interested in what we had observed last weekend. I told them about the lady in Biloxi who stayed through both Camille and Katrina.
She said in Camille the rockers inside the house were rocking during the storm from the wind coming through the window. Not this time. Therefore, the wind wasn't as strong. That's the kind of information they are looking for.
They showed us the surge map was 25 -30 feet of surge some 5 miles from the beach.
We then went down to Biloxi and found more streets with homes where there has been little assistance. We dropped off food and other needed supplies. In roaming the neighborhood we experienced a drop off in need. It seems that many of the initial critical needs have been met. I also saw many more smaller religious groups coming into the area to look at longer term needs.
These groups, many fundamentalist based, are intent. I had a discussion at dinner the other evening with a guy and his wife from Williamsburg, VA. He was with a Christian organization whose name escapes me. He really believes that this cataclysmic storm is God's way of ultimately breaking the generations of welfare cycle. Their intent here is to identify families to place back in better areas of the country and retrain them and make them productive citizens.
You know, I don't believe my God sits and plans disasters as a way of achieving some political or social agenda. Nor do I believe my God wants me to think this way.
The yellow shirted Scientology Ministers also arrived enmass. There theme is "Because something can be done about it". Bob and I are having fun figuring out what 'it' is. I don't believe that 'it' is the Hurricane itself. However, we are doing something about rebuilding people's lives. Maybe that's it. Anyway, I think they ultimately want money from folks to discover what it is. When we find 'it' I guess we'll know what 'it' is and Bob and I will report back.
What I know is that 'it' is part of shit and there is a growing amount of that in souther Mississippi.
So we roamed the neighborhoods of Biloxi and continue to meet wonderful people. It is obvious that some of the drug folks are moving back in. You can see that element right away which is unfortunate.
We met the new pastor of St. Johns RC Church. Father Steve Wilson, a Redemptorist priest, from Chicago who starts his new assignment on October 1. He and the church secretary were there trying to clean. The inside of this small Catholic church was wiped out from 10 ft. of water. A lot of mold in there, I gave Father Steve some masks to wear. They were finding the church's Stations of the Cross throughout the neighborhood from the flood.
They'll recover. Fr. Steve and I were laughing that with the casinos shut down for nearly a year it may be time to rekindle their weekly bingo night.
Well, I'll see what I can do in terms of light duty today. Have some good leads. Probably drive volunteers around. Free agency is nice every once in a while.
Good Morning:
I have seemed to hit a wall today with activity. Had a miserable night last evening, too hot to sleep. The last two nights I've had to change sheets in the middle of the night because I'm sweating in bed. I thought it was a little better last evening but to no avail. That leads to my rash which is really irritating. Took a Benedryl last night to relieve the itch. Time for medicated powder and ac.
So today, I've decided to spend in the air conditioning of headquarters and take a break from the 90+ heat and humidity.
I really don't know what I'll be assigned today so I'll snoop around here with the paper shufflers and find something interesting to do.
Yesterday was another interesting day. Bob and I started out by stopping at the Hampton Inn in the morning and sitting in their air conditioned lobby and reading the Sunday paper. A great pleasure. All the hotels are booked here through the end of the year. Solid.
A few gentlemen arrived in the lobby and set up an impromptu meeting. They were from FEMA and were reviewing a report by two men who had completed the wind damage survey of the area. They were establishing the official wind estimates from the hurricane. It was there belief based on the damage data that the winds were not quite as strong as originally projected. This was all data driven and will eventually be the basis for new building codes, etc. Bob and I moved over and kind of joined the discussion. They were interested in what we had observed last weekend. I told them about the lady in Biloxi who stayed through both Camille and Katrina.
She said in Camille the rockers inside the house were rocking during the storm from the wind coming through the window. Not this time. Therefore, the wind wasn't as strong. That's the kind of information they are looking for.
They showed us the surge map was 25 -30 feet of surge some 5 miles from the beach.
We then went down to Biloxi and found more streets with homes where there has been little assistance. We dropped off food and other needed supplies. In roaming the neighborhood we experienced a drop off in need. It seems that many of the initial critical needs have been met. I also saw many more smaller religious groups coming into the area to look at longer term needs.
These groups, many fundamentalist based, are intent. I had a discussion at dinner the other evening with a guy and his wife from Williamsburg, VA. He was with a Christian organization whose name escapes me. He really believes that this cataclysmic storm is God's way of ultimately breaking the generations of welfare cycle. Their intent here is to identify families to place back in better areas of the country and retrain them and make them productive citizens.
You know, I don't believe my God sits and plans disasters as a way of achieving some political or social agenda. Nor do I believe my God wants me to think this way.
The yellow shirted Scientology Ministers also arrived enmass. There theme is "Because something can be done about it". Bob and I are having fun figuring out what 'it' is. I don't believe that 'it' is the Hurricane itself. However, we are doing something about rebuilding people's lives. Maybe that's it. Anyway, I think they ultimately want money from folks to discover what it is. When we find 'it' I guess we'll know what 'it' is and Bob and I will report back.
What I know is that 'it' is part of shit and there is a growing amount of that in souther Mississippi.
So we roamed the neighborhoods of Biloxi and continue to meet wonderful people. It is obvious that some of the drug folks are moving back in. You can see that element right away which is unfortunate.
We met the new pastor of St. Johns RC Church. Father Steve Wilson, a Redemptorist priest, from Chicago who starts his new assignment on October 1. He and the church secretary were there trying to clean. The inside of this small Catholic church was wiped out from 10 ft. of water. A lot of mold in there, I gave Father Steve some masks to wear. They were finding the church's Stations of the Cross throughout the neighborhood from the flood.
They'll recover. Fr. Steve and I were laughing that with the casinos shut down for nearly a year it may be time to rekindle their weekly bingo night.
Well, I'll see what I can do in terms of light duty today. Have some good leads. Probably drive volunteers around. Free agency is nice every once in a while.
posted by Bob Still at 10:06 AM
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