Day 9

Well, I made it home, but I figured I better write a final entry to wrap things up. I didn't write anything Friday because I was pretty sick, I think with food poisoning. Needless to say, that was a long night and I was quite glad that I already had Sunday morning off, because there is no way I would have made it in to headquarters at 8 am.

Anyways, I spent most of my last two days continuing the work I did Friday, which was closing cases in CAS. Between myself and Carla, a manager who came to headquarters after shutting down health services in the South region headquarters, we closed around 45 cases in those two days (which is a lot, in case you were wondering). It was constant work but that was fine with me. Sunday I took things a little slower, though, since I still wasn't feeling great. I had a late flight (9:30 pm) out of Newark, so I was able to work all the way until 6:00, get out-processed, and leave for the airport. I wasn't really ready to leave, as 10 days is pretty short for a deployment and there was still plenty of work to be done. Flatteringly, the HS lead Teresa and Carla didn't want me to leave, either. So, we said our goodbyes, they tried one more time to get me to stay longer, and I headed out.

All in all, it was a good deployment. I got a ton of good administrative experience, and I netted an excellent evaluation from Teresa. Most importantly, I was able to help a lot of people, even if most of it was indirect. I was happy to help Teresa keep the ship afloat so that the people in the field could do their job. It is a little bittersweet, though, as my future with the Red Cross is uncertain. I am unsure of what I will be doing after graduation, and I fear that it will be a job that won't let me continue to deploy.  I suppose I can't worry about that now, though. I'll worry about how to get 10 days off from work when I get there. After all, who knows, I might end up deploying to New York in a couple weeks once winter break starts.

Day 7

Ok, I'll make this post brief because I'm tired and, more importantly, my roommate has to be up at 4:45 to be in the lobby at 5:00 to head out to work. He and the rest of the HS people (11 to be exact) are heading down to the Lavalette area, a part of the barrier islands where residents are only now being allowed back in. They will be setting up an emergency aid station and roving around the island, providing medical care for the residents who will just now be sifting through the remains of their homes.It will be a good experience for them, as most of them are new to the Red Cross and really need to see why we're here. I, on the other hand, will be in HQ with the chief and manager. I offered to go out to the island with them and the reply from the chief was "No, you're staying here with me." Well, I can't argue with that, I'm happy to be wanted, and I guess I've made myself enough of an asset to have to stay around the office and help.

My day today was quite busy and my day tomorrow will likely be much of the same. Today I split my time between working on closing cases and sorting out a few new condolence calls we have. For closing cases I have bene making phone calls to clients and determining what, if any health needs they have and finding ways to meet them. The new condolences came to us from FEMA, and we have spent the last couple days verifying that they were disaster relating and determining how to handle them. I have had a lot of people ask how I am able to do the computer work, phone calls, and paperwork so happily, and I guess it is a combination of knowing that this is what I was getting myself into and also knowing the importance of these activities. I guess I'm able to keep the big picture in sight and know that making sure the cases are squared away in the computer system ensures that the clients get the help they need. Maybe I'm just happy doing anything that contributes to the smooth operation of the operation.

Well I promised it would be short, so thats all for today. I finished the day with a dinner with a few of the nurses that had been in the shelters followed by a visit to the bar with a new friend in community partnerships from Oregon. Tomorrow promises to be another busy day (synonymous with good day, I like to have a stack of work bigger than I know what to do with), but I suppose we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out about that.

Happy Thanksgiving! And also Day 6

Today started off about like any other day, with hotel breakfast and the drive to headquarters (which was unusually short today thanks to a lack of traffic). We followed up on a few cases, closed a few, and entered some condolence cases into CAS (Client Assistance System, the somewhat convoluted software we used for case management). After that I didn't have a whole lot to do for the rest of the day, so I took some online ARC classes to build my disaster resume). After that it was time for a short call home before I went back to the hotel for our Red Cross family dinner. My call home was, of course, interrupted by the first time all day that my Red Cross phone had rung. After taking that call and calling my family back, it was time to head back for the festivities. And festive they were.

The meal was excellent and, more importantly, free to the Red Cross. All of the food was donated and the waitstaff and chefs volunteered to help us have our dinner. Along with that we had a variety of chocolate items which were donated, so everyone at dinner got a huge box of Toblerone and a chocolate orange (I didn't know these existed). But the best came with the after dinner entertainment. Between some staff karaoke (I think I get extra points for calling that), someone playing a Native American flute, and a couple er... interesting skits, it was a good time. Now it is time for watching football and napping, much needed activities.

Day 5

Day 5 is down and I'm halfway to going home. I have to say, I'm really wishing I could stay longer, but I suppose I better actually go to class next week. But anyways, what about today? Today I did a variety of different things, all with the goal of ending the DR. Throughout the day a few calls came in for assistance to specific clients. Following up on those took much of the day, as I was referring clients to resources who could get their meds replaced, sending them vouchers to replace their eyeglasses, and helping them get medical equipment replaced. This involves a lot of phone calls and other sundry desk jockeying. Even so, it is still a great and rewarding experience to help people get things back that will let them carry on their lives.

Interspersed with doing follow-up and running errands for the health service chief, I slowly got more and more involved in the condolence calls. With the staff that had been running condolences gone, I am getting worked in on them to help out. I spent a decent amount of time ensuring that we had contacted all of the families of those who died in or as a result of the storm. This distinction can actually become pretty difficult to make, so the unpleasant task of finding out the details of deaths and determining how to handle them became mine. So, requests were sent to FEMA for a list of fatalities and calls were made to medical examiners, and we moved down the list and made more calls, and then did it again. It isn't very enjoyable, but it is important work and our clients appreciate so very, very much that it makes it all worthwhile.

Well, after a good day of good work, I'm off to bed before Thanksgiving Day. It'll be back to work at 8 am, but only for a partial day. We get off at 2 and then we will have Thanksgiving dinner together as a big Red Cross family (And we've also been promised some mystery entertainment. I'm holding out for an open bar and staff karaoke). So, I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, I know mine will be with an opportunity to help some people who really, really need it tomorrow.

Day 4

Well, day 4 is down and I can say it was a good one. We started by making some calls to clients and sending them some much needed assistance. It felt great to spend a few hours contacting people in need and doing what we could for them, even if it didn't involve leaving my folding chair and table. After that, we headed down to Tinton Falls, the regional ARC chapter for Southern New Jersey, to drop off the paperwork we picked up yesterday. After that, we headed down to the shore since it was only a few minutes away. We went to Asbury Park, an area that had experienced the brunt of the storm and had its fair share of damage. We saw 30-40 foot high piles of sand that had washed in and been scraped off the road. The shorefront areas were truly devastated, with some houses flooded, some wind damaged, and some entirely washed away. It was good to be able to go see the areas we are serving and see why we are here.

After that we headed back to headquarters. There we continued to work on our "hot shots" (our term for clients that specifically request our assistance, as opposed to canvassing for them) and I helped out the condolence team with some of their paperwork. Familiarizing myself with some of the condolence cases, it reminds me of my time in Chattanooga and the horrible fulfillment you get from helping someone who has lost their home, their livelihood, and their family. The cases here are just as hard as they were in Chattanooga, and it is tough to see again, but I am glad to see us doing everything we can to help them.

That was pretty much it for the day, I came back to the hotel and had a much needed couple of beers with some new Red Cross friends and now I'm off to bed before tomorrow and whatever it brings.

Days 1, 2, and 3

Well, unfortunately my internet was out of service until now, so I'm going to have to catch up in one post. So, I guess I'll start from the top. When I got into Philadelphia Friday night was told to go to the Airport Marriott and wait until the morning to go to headquarters in New Brunswick. I stayed the night with a nice guy from Colorado who was about as much of a biology nerd and outdoorsman as myself, so we had a good time talking. In the morning we rented a car, caught up with a few more Red Crossers, and headed to headquarters.

Headquarters turned out to be in a large, 3 story office building. It's nice because it has large open areas where cubicles used to be, so all the services can set up in the same room and have the normal war-room atmosphere. On arrival we had a brief orientation, after which I headed upstairs to the health services desk. When I got there I found a number of friends from Nashville 2010 and a couple from Chattanooga 2011. Among them was the health services chief, Teresa. I have to say, it was nice to have some familiar faces around on such a big operation. Last time I heard, we had 6,000 Red Cross volunteers in New Jersey alone. In addition, we have people from the Canadian and Mexican Red Cross (more on that later).

Well, after orientation and in-processing, most of the rest of the day was spent sitting around with minimal activity since I had missed the boat on most stuff since things get started pretty early in the morning. I helped out where I could and waited for my ride to the hotel and roommate to be, another EMT, Jacob from San Jose, CA (and he's 21, too, a rare sight on a DRO). Well, we got back to the hotel and went to bed pretty early, which was good considering that we ended up having a big day Sunday.

Sunday morning we reported straight to the DRO warehouse so that we could go out to bulk distribution sights and set up aid stations there. The warehouse is a cavernous building filled with unfathomable quantities of post-disaster necessities. For a few hours we helped load the trucks and headed out when they were full. I caught a ride to Atlantic City on a 26' box truck filled with snacks, diapers, cleaning supplies, water, and more. After a short 2 1/2 hour ride we set up shop in a parking lot and started distributing what we had. Fortunately people kept themselves in order, and we were able to get everything distributed. Even better was that we were working with 2 people from the Mexican Red Cross and got to know them and the rest of their group. After making the supply drop, we went to dinner with all 11 of our new friends from Mexico and then I rode back to New Brunswick with them. It was nice to talk about how things work for them, and it also gave me a good opportunity to work on my Spanish a little. We made it back to the hotel by the time it was all said and done it was a 15 hour work day and I went to bed as soon as I could, comfortable knowing that I wouldn't have to throw 20 pound boxes across the back of a truck again.

Today started at headquarters with a job, go to the shelters a Monmouth Park and Rutger to pick up paperwork for National HQ. So, off we went to Monmouth Park, a horse race track in Oceanport. Also known as tent city, it is a massive shelter set up jointly by the Red Cross, the state of NJ, and FEMA.  By now the shelter has been moved into the concourse of the track, but for a number of days people were housed in massive tents in the parking lot, complete with flooring, heating, and water. We drove through the old tent shelters after getting the paperwork to marvel at the sight. After this, we headed back up to Rutgers. The shelter at Rutger is in a gym and is set to be closing in the next few days. After finishing our pick-ups, we returned to headquarters to sort and copy all 700+ patient care records we got. This took most of the rest of the day, but when we were done we were able to take the rest of the day and call some clients and help some people out. It felt good to speak with someone with a true need who had no other options and give them the information they needed to start recovering. While the details of tomorrow are uncertain, hopefully it will include more speaking with clients and giving them the help they need.

Below I have added some pictures so you can get an idea of what is going on here. I won't give captions, you can probably figure out what paragraph above they go with.