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.
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