Bed Sweet Bed. Hey. I Told You Things Change!

Ok, so my SECOND night already, and I'm headed for luxury. A really - really nice suite in New Orleans. It was far too far to drive to work every day so they found me accomdations much closer to work and LOOK! A BED!.. uh. But. There's a catch. There's still no water, so we're talking Evian sink showers, but I'LL TAKE IT!
The poor clerk looked at me when I arrived like I was crazy. I apparently was and have since vowed to try and remember where the hell I am! I guess the step up from the Gym made me think I was Weezy Jefferson or something. I remember now who and where I am. Still, I'm very sorry I made him go through a drill, I'm sure he had gone through enough.

bed sweet bed
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

"Uh..No sir. There's no valet. I'm the only one working tonight (we're talking a big hotel. One person.) Uh, no sir - even 'if' we had employees, which we don't, they wouldn't be able to get to work because of the curfew. So. We are a staff of 8 who have stayed and we rotate shifts. We don't change the rooms. If you want fresh linens there's a closet on the second floor help yourself. There's no cable, don't bother with the TV remote. There's no hot breakfast - don't ask. There 'is' dinner however since the city has no restaurants and there's no place to eat. So, dinner will be brought to you tomorrow, complimentary by our hotel sales and booking staff. The cooks are gone. There's no newspaper in the morning, no mail service - no you can't receive packages here. And, the smell? That's the garbage. The city has no garbage trucks. And no - you may not park in the hotel garage. It's been commandeered by the police department it's now an official city police parking garage. Where do 'you' park?? Um. Wherever the hell you want! Who's gonna ticket you? Who's gonna tow you!? Did you see all the abandoned cars in the street? on the sidewalks? windows busted out and car doors wide open? "???" Do you think they really care that your freakin-governmental-rental-Camry is in a red zone?"

Uh. Oops. I am in another dimension. My bad. Sorry.

Driving into New Orleans, Thrusday Sept 29th 11pm

Deserted Freeway
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Driving into New Orleans was an eerie experience. Once you get past the National Guard checkpoint - remember the city is closed and there's a curfew in effect (I have my Government badget - thank God that gets me through these things) it's odd to be driving in a major city with no traffic, no people, no lights for the most part and feeling by yourself. Odd!

My New Friends and Co-Workers. Some of them.

Me and some of the folks
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

I-Need-A-Cigarette-Fred, Wake-Me-Up-Tomorrow Manny, Me, Crazy-Driver-Tony and Disasterman-Jerry. See! Even my friends out on the road get nicknames!

Superdome. Missing Some of the Roof.

Superdome Missing Tiles
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Driving by on Thursday, September 29, 2005 on my way to my first assignment in Gretna at the Disaster Relief Center. This was just one of many amazing images of how much devastation there was.

My first nights stay.. in the Presidential Suite/Gym

Home Sweet Gym? Ok. So the accomdations are not what they said they would be. They were worse. In fact, after the first night I vowed, as did many of my co workers, that we'd sleep in the car. This place was FREEZING. And, the cots side by side with mixed genders, snorers (sorry folks) and bugs was enough - for just one night. But HEY. We're here to help others right? So to do that, I'll need a good night sleep. Thank God I got a Camry and not a Corolla! I'll need the space of that backseat.

Change of Plan.. Thurs Sept 29, 2005 11pm

Uh huh. Ok, so the first thing I've learned about this job already is don't even make a plan. Or think a plan has been made. I arrived at Gretna the first morning and was immediately reassigned to another center at Belle Chasse. That's ok, because I was told this one was really busy.. and I wanted to be helpful.

It's one thing to walk into a situation and know what you think you know. Remember I told some of you about my experiences in Mastering Life's Energies was that I don't 'know' as much as I think I'd like to think I know. (Maybe you follow my line of thinking or maybe you don't - I'll understand). So thinking I know that I'm going to be dealing with difficult stories and peoples lives and the devastation is on one hand, and then on the other is the confrontation of humanity. Face to face.

I'm really not trying to be dramatic. I'm just shocked at my own inability to comprehend the scope of what I take in from the media and images and believe to be true. I wasn't prepared for how challenging this was to be, but then again I wasn't really informed. You can't prepare yourself for a situation like this from bombardment of images and rolling screen scrolls from CNN. And all my surfing on MSNBC didn't even come close the reality of seeing, just folks in line - on a humid September day. Fanning themselves. Drinking water. Some chatting, some crying - a few even looking a little lost. It was much harder than I anticipated.

First Assignement... Wednesday, Sept 28, 2005

Get to Baton Rouge....

This may sound like a simple assignment but.. remember, there are several of us, and unfortunately people in mass, treading into unknowns are not always happy cooperative people. We had our first falling out before we really even got started. Folks late for departure, heading the wrong direction. We ended up inside Arkansas by about 20+minutes. Someone thank goodness had the wherewithall to mention to our self-appointed leader that the Gulf of Mexico is "south" and clearly the directions on the highway signs we're all reading.. north.

But eventually we managed to get to the Operations Center in Baton Rouge in what was estimated to take 7 hours in just 10.5 hours. We met our operations manager and then were given our assignments. I would be in Gretna, which is just East of New Orleans. East of New Orleans? Aren't we in Baton Rouge? And isn't that some distance away? Don't worry. Get in the rental Camry and get to your sleeping quarters in Carville Louisiana. Just another 50 miles. Blech.

On the Road.. Tues Sept 27 2005 11:40am

Here I am..

Tuesday, 11:40am Texas Time Houston... Hanging out in Houston on a three hour lay-over waiting for a puddle jumper size plane to go to Texarkana, Arkansas. It's seems strange to fly into there, but I guess it's the only place where rental cars were available. From there it will be a six hour drive to Baton Rouge. It may take a little while longer because we're caravanning (8 of us in separate cars) and we have smokers in our group who said, max two hours before a stop is necessary. In our group we have Jerry, Brad, Manny, Michael, Myself, Jo Jo and another guy I can't remember his name. I just ate some tex-mex and I'll propose a game of cards since we have some time to kill, or maybe I'll go over to the glamourous airport media store and get a book.

Waiting for the Ground to Open Up

It hasn't happened yet...

Since Massachusettes has legalized Gay marriage over a year ago - nothing's happened. Well. Not exactly nothing. Over 6100 couples have said their nuptuals, their I do's, their til death-do-us-parts and beyond that - nothing.

And I've been waiting. For something.

There's been no ground rumbling, indicating a iminent gaping hole in the earth to open up and swallow the state whole. And, I've been searching the national weather channel to see if there's any evidence that severe lightening strikes will smite the state to smithereens. Nope. Not even a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado.

I guess that could mean that the doomsayers might have mis-called this one. I don't know that straight couples have left thier matrimonial partnership enmass because the meaning of their original commitments no longer exist. I don't know that the meaning of marriage is any less than it was over a year ago. Perhaps these are questions for long term study.

Or, maybe - some Americans have been bamboozled into the many and sometimes outrageous arguments of anti-love proponents who have convinced us of some the afforementioned horrors.

Now today the Massachusettes state legislature has passed, by a wide margin, to not move forward on the constitutional amendment that would bar marriage in favor of civil unions. Still, Mitt-President-Wannabe-Declare-War-On-His-Own-State-Residents Romney is pushing for an amendment that goes a step further to prevent civil unions or marriage.

Governor. Get a life. Get a clue. Get a realistic ambition. You're not going to be President. You're not even likely to sway your state towards hate. Perhaps you should just call it a day, call it a career, and move on. Buh-Bye.

Dismantle And Rebuild Simultaneously

The Department of Homeland Security...

appears to care little about domestic wellbeing. At least in light of the response to Hurricane Katrina. FEMA, under the Department of Homeland Security, has seen its effectiveness reduced to the shameful, inadequate agency which displayed little preparedness or response.

In the press briefing released by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, referred to "Louisiana as a city largely underwater." Therein lies a peek into the importance this region plays to the current administration and our legislators. While Chertoff and others have created the behemoth of a bureacracy devoted to terrorism, focus on agencies such as FEMA have become neglected. Instead of listening incessantly for chatter on the airwaves of faceless threats perhaps they should have listened to the chatter of Americas Army Corps of Engineers that warned of the consequences of inadequate preparation and funding for the New Orelans' levees. Shouldn't that kind of chatter incite as much interest? Perhaps the Corps should have conveyed to them that it was rising from an orange condition to a red condition, since that would appear is the only language these folks seem to speak.

On Sunday's meet the Press Tim Russert pressed Secretary Chertoff on the issue of lack of preparedness. The Secretary insisted the reason that there were no beds, or water or anything at the Convention Center was because it was not to be set up as an evacuation center. City officials and FEMA were encouraging folks to go to the Superdome instead. He explained that folks just showed up at the Convention Center, and that's why they were ill prepared. Thank goodness Tim Russert had the chutzpah to indicate to the Secretary that there wasn't any water at the Superdome either!

In the weeks and months, and perhaps years that will follow this devastating event it is guaranteed that the spin-masters will be out to limit the damage of the inadequacies displayed in these days so not to tarnish their images and legacies. But, I call on President Bush to FINALLY do 'something' to hold his administration accountable. Secretary Chertoff or FEMA Director Michael Brown (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12572391.htm) should be fired. Some of them don't even know the difference between the STATE of LOUISIANA and the CITY of NEW ORLEANS. These are the people we entrust with the lives of millions of people?

We already learned however in the wake of the largest intellegence failure of history in our continuing search for WMDs, no one paid for that incompetence either. The CIA the Justice Department the State Department all continue with no one ever being called on the carpet for their perfomance - or lack thereof. Perhaps - the President is avoiding presidence. If he doesn't show that folks should lose their jobs for being inadequate to the task, people will not start to wonder if he falls into that same category as well?

Regardless. Rebuild the Gulf Coast. Dismantle Homeland Security or at least limit this wing of government to the FBI and CIA and let agencies whose mission is humanitarian (FEMA etc.) operate seperately. Their missions are too incompatible to operate as one. Particularly when folks at the helm seem to care little about what they do or how they operate.