This post is not my usual topic. It recounts the first few days of my recent work on a disaster relief operation for the Red Cross. This operation was in response to the floods, landslides and storms in Eastern Kentucky in May.
The call asking if I could deploy came about 3:30 on Monday, May 18th. Interestingly this was the last day of my official on campus duties until July 1. However that even was commencement; attendance at graduation is a contractual obligation for us. The initial phone call was based on me leaving Monday evening. responded that that I would go but might not be able to leave until 10 that night. I requested and eventually obtained permission to miss the ceremony.
Packing is usually no big deal but much of my stuff is still in disorganized boxes and at this point, I don’t know the details of where I am headed (e.g. hotel versus staff shelter, drive versus fly, hardship codes, etc.). As I pack, I am also trying to email the people who would need to know I am going to be gone, clean out things that would go bad in the fridge, put a hold on my mail, etc. I am not even sure what the disaster was other than flooding. I ended up having the evening to get ready as the final details were not worked out until just after 6 which was too late to get a car from Avis and too late to make it to commencement.
I am up early on Tuesday morning to be at Avis when they open and then go by the chapter to take care of paperwork and pick up my Staff Card. By 9:30 I am ready to head to Kentucky but still no details beyond head to Pikeville, Kentucky. The national deployment information line does not have info. My local chapter still doesn’t have a name of a person to contact or details on where I will be staying. I do have the number of the local chapter linked to the DRO (disaster relief operation). Folks at my local chapter will try to find more information and call or email me with details during the day. It is an 8 hour drive according to Mapquest so there is time. Evenutally I am instructed to call the Deployment information line when I near Pikeville. I try that a few times but the message from that morning is for people arriving between 9 and 4. Those people are to report to headquarters and it gives a couple of numbers to call if there are problems while traveling.
I arrive in Pikeville about 6 with no new information available. I try to find the headquarters without any luck. I call one of the trouble numbers. After various phone calls and meeting with a staff services person I find out that I need to drive to Norton, Virginia which is “about 30 minutes away.” Hotel options are very limited in the area because of the upcoming holiday weekend. I find driving in the mountains confusing and by this point I am pretty tired so there are some false starts until I figure out to ignore the compass and drive “west” even though I need to go east. I drive for 30 minutes and keep driving. After 45 minutes there is still no sign of Norton; it isn’t even being mentioned on the signs. Finally a little over an hour after leaving Pikeville, I find Norton and my hotel. After a few more complications I manage to check into the Holiday Inn in Norton, Virginia which is lovely and I recommend it should you have a reason to visit there. I grab dinner and try to check my email and find the answer to the question of why barns in Kentucky are black. However, my lap top cord has died. I make a quick check of email and collapse. I have to be back in Pikeville before 8 the next morning.
The first morning working the DRO included in=processing and a Client Casework group briefing. A representative from the local chapter talked about some unique aspects of the culture. Many workers arrived with some pretty extreme stereotypes in their mind. Some of which are partially true but many of which are not. The briefing included how to deal with the presence of “show chickens,” the importance of touch in the local culture, how pit bulls are just like chiquaqua dogs, and why you needed to drive very, very carefully. She should have also mentioned the cottonmouth snakes too. In case you are wondering “show chickens” are roosters raised for cock fights. However, the people that raise them don’t hide them. They are, in fact, quite proud of them. They will tell you exactly what they tell law enforcement — those are show chickens.
I also start to learn a bit about the events that had created the current problems. Between May 8-10 there were a number of storms, flash floods, stream and river flooding, and mudslides in the area. At this point there was no national disaster proclamation. I noticed in writing this post that on May 29, FEMA announced that it would be offering assistance.
I didn’t take pictures (I have a problem with playing tourist in someone’s nightmare) but here are some links to videos and photos by others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuL3DihlajM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgEQ5sM-qII&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iulaCRTm4fk&feature=related
http://www.wvnstv.com/slideshow.cfm?func=viewshow&showid=237
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuG2WKAHOZo&feature=related
For my first day, I am paired with someone from Disaster Assessment who has been out in the area for 6 days, who has a GPS, and who likes to drive. This makes me very lucky. We take our assigned street sheets and head out. We spend the morning working in Floyd County and the afternoon working in Pike County. Both counties are predominantly white and very poor. In Pike county 20.8 percent and in Floyd 32.9 percent of people live below the poverty line. Our first stop is a trailer house that is listed as having major damage (destroyed is more likely given the smell of mold). Piled in the yard are most of the household goods, children’s clothes, and toys. The single mom who lives there is sitting on the steps when we arrive. We talk with her and give her referrals to some local agencies. This is all we are able to do at this point. I made the one decision from this deployment that I regret. I should have done a referral to mental health services for her. We spend the rest of the day looking for addresses, talking with local people, and leaving notes for people who are not home.
The roads are indeed very bad. The roads and home sites are often located near creeks. It is pretty much the only flat land available. Even before the floods many of these were very narrow and often unpaved. The floods had wash away or caused collapse of a good portion of the edges of the road. Addresses are interesting to find as many properties had multiple trailers that shared a single mailbox. This would become an even bigger problem for client casework in Breathitt County.
Eventually, we head back to HQ for the end of the day briefing, paperwork, and such. I meet the person who will become my roommate, B, for the rest of the DR. We are finally released to head back to the hotel about 6:30. I drive back with B following me. The first night in Norton there were just two of us. Now there are now a dozen or so.
Day 2 begins in much the same way but with more confusion at HQ. There are some development underway that will change things considerably but they won’t be announced until later in the day. My partner from Day 1 has gone home. I am now a supervisor with teams reporting to me but not actually under my control. After many shifts, some of the teams are sent out into the field. Others are sent back to check out of hotels to be sent as part of a team of 8 or so to Breathitt County. I don’t have a partner, so I begin doing data entry.
Around mid-morning the Client Casework manager comes over to ask if I will join the team relocating to Breathitt County, I say yes. However, at this point they haven’t found places for us to stay in Breathitt so my instructions are to sit tight and keep doing what I am doing for a few more hours. I do. As the afternoon continues, they find a hodge podge of rooms scattered are several counties around Jackson, Kentucky which is where the satellite headquarters will be located. Given that my things are in a hotel room an hour to the east and the new location is an hour to the west, it is decided that it makes more sense to finish the day in Pikeville and leave early in the morning for Jackson.
A few other people waiting to be relocated also work on data entry and we get it caught up. I then start doing hot shot calls. This involves returning calls to people who have called the GET INFO number either because a note caseworkers have left or in response to media coverage. This is going pretty well and it looks like I might even get to leave before 6 until my last call which turned out to be very complicated and ultimately involved health services and mental health services. I finally have that call handed off to team for a home visit and head to the hotel for dinner, sleep, and checking out.
To be continued
