Bye bye Beaumont

I'm off to Hewitt this morning to see my folks.

It's been nice, Beaumont, but I gots ta go. I really hope the recovery here keeps moving. The people in Sabine and Bridge City are especially in my prayers.

I don't think I'll be doing any more disasters this year so I'm putting my FEMA shirts in mothballs. I can't wait to get home and hug my kids. The wife says that I'm going to need a jacket back home. I missed most of the nice Michigan early fall season. I have a taste for apples and venison.

Vaya con Dios...

Getting close to leaving

It's Friday!

Normally that means something, but on our schedule...who cares?

What it DOES mean is that tomorrow is my last work day here in Beaumont. It's been an interesting journey. I really have polished my FEMA skills and by accident have polished my leadership and management skills.

I hate being away from home. I get horribly homesick. I can't imagine what people who do this for 6 months at a time go through or what people serving in the military endure. I just did 30 days and I'm ready for home.

I do, however, love this work. Going one-on-one with people and helping them get their lives back in order in whatever small way is a heck of a way to earn a paycheck. If I were retired and rich, I'd do it for free. Since I'm neither of those things, I'll go ahead and cash those paychecks.

What I'll miss:

• Texans. They're unique, for sure. Some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people on earth. You gotta love the dialect.
• Cajun Food. I gar-on-tee.
• The pace. I love being busy, having a purpose, coordinating, thinking on my feet, getting to be creative...just knowing I'm doing something useful and important.

What I won't miss:

• Really nasty trailer parks
• Mean dogs
• Wearing a blue shirt with a target on the front.

I'm not done yet. I still have another town meeting to attend. Hopefully not too many torches and pitchforks.

More Ike Pictures

Ugh. Tired.

9 more days till I get home.

Please keep Ike victims in your thoughts. I searched the USA Today for any reference to Hurricane Ike today and didn't find it. I saw no news about Ike on CNN. One month ago you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting Jim Cantore.

I take that back. Bill Clinton and George Bush 41 are photo op-ing on Galveston as we speak for their new charity drive. Good for them.

These pictures were taken yesterday and the day before (I think) and show that there are a LOT of people still hurting. This area has a LONG way to go.

Sabine Pass

Click here for My Photobucket Ike Album. I upload a lot of camera phone pics here. Some of these don't make it to the blog so you can see more photos.

Today was my first day as the new CR Manager for my county. My boss got promoted so I took over for him. I decided to go take a drive to the south part of the county and seeing what was going on down there.

Wow.

Just wow.

The storm aside, this is a unique place. I don't know what all of the large structures are, but I presume that this is where they build offshore oil rigs. I think what I was seeing was offshore rigs in various states of construction and repair. Everything here is on an immense scale.



I wasn't aware how much like LA and FL that this place is. I was looking overhead watching a flock of flamingos fly by. Pelicans and other water birds wheeled overhead. As I was driving along the intracoastal waterway, I saw this:


This guy's been dead a while, and someone propped his jaws open with a beer bottle. No way I just saw that!

This is some real destruction. I won't post all of the pics here...just go look at the album to see them. The Search and Rescue markings on the buidings were pretty chilling and reminiscent of Katrina.

These people are wiped out. Even the ones on stilts got flooded by the 20' storm surge. People said Ike wasn't as bad as they thought it was going to be. I dunno...this was pretty bad. I'll see more of this soon, and post pictures, but for now, I just need to process it and figure out what small thing our team can do (if anything) to help the situation.

More later.

I just wanted to catch up some photos from the past week:

Bad day for the Tile and Carpet store

I'll Huff and I'll Puff...down goes the brick wall.

Excuse me, would you please remove your store from the roof of my house?
This was bad because a man's elderly mom was living in the house which might have been compromised by the impact and weight of the building.

More damage

After the 3' thick tree trunk was removed from the house.

This wall of debris was 6' tall and went all the way down the street

A strong case for evacuation.

I don't know the scientific name for this species of tree. I just call them "Texas Housecrushers"

Dog and Pony

The last two days have been dedicated to giving informational 'town hall' meetings for the employees of Exxon Mobil. It was really great of the company to allow us to talk to their employees. It's a great way to reach a bunch of people quickly.

The facilities in this area provide a large portion of the petrochemical products our country depends on. These folks are some hard workin Texans. They all wear these work shirts that are kind of western-style with a US flag on one shoulder and a Texas flag on the other. During one of our meetings, this group of guys from the refinery walks in, hard hats in hand. I think the smallest one was 6'3" and 250 or so. They weren't smiling.

Great. At least there were no torches or pitchforks...

Most of these folks were just confused about the seemingly byzantine process of storm relief. They expressed their thoughts on the 'user friendlieness' of the registration process in no uncertain terms. They were also pissed at the fact that their responsible behavior like working hard, buying flood insurance and paying taxes was not rewarded with quick relief while those who did not act responsibly (no account SOBs) got quick relief.

I had not much to say about that...they were right, that's an unfortunate fact of government.

We managed to soothe some of the tempers and get back on track and I think most of them left with a plan for how to proceed from there...they weren't giddy with us, but at least they were on the right path toward getting some of their problems solved. Most of them thanked us and said they appreciated us.

I was impressed with their company from what I saw...they really seemed to be a tight community. Very family-like.

7-7-7

Sept 29th
Seven am to Seven pm, seven days a week.

Well I'm on day 8 of 12+ hrs a day. I'm not whining...but I am dragging today a bit. We're hearing some of the stories from Bridge City where the damage was pretty horrific. I haven't seen it personally, but we will get out there soon. I spoke with a woman who's house was completely flooded...mudded is more like it.

These folks are on the beginning of a long road to recovery. It will be months...maybe a year until they can rebuild. The beginning is dealing with insurers, registering with FEMA, bank issues, mortgage issues, finding a place to live until their houses are rebuilt/repaired. Many of them are housing relatives and friends (and neighbors they don't really know in some cases, bless their hearts). They're tired and frustrated and frazzled. Some will cry at the drop of a hat, but somehow they don't lash out at us. Sometimes they do a little, but they always rein it in and apologize. That amazes me. Most of these folks are beyond nice to us. I don't know if I'd be that nice to me if I were in their situation.

Today Thomas and I visited a dozen or so churches...they are doing great work for their communities as they always do. They help us get the word out about registering and make our job easier. One place was ramping down their shelter...the Southern Baptist Convention folks were out with the Chainsaws in that area...they are some neat people...'the chainsaw ministry' I've heard it called. They are trained at debris clearing and they do a GREAT job.

Tomorrow we're doing a town-hall meeting for Exxon Mobil in Beaumont. Their employees are coming to hear us talk about FEMA benefits, etc. Hopefully they'll be as nice to us as everyone else has...I'm sure they will.