Wrath (Natural and Otherwise)

I suppose I thought I was joking yesterday when I mentioned that perhaps we would stay somewhere two days in a row, but clearly I was wrong. Sure enough, we got orders this afternoon to drive back to Alexandria, where we will be opening another shelter in the Coliseum. It remains to be seen if people actually take refuge there, but here's hoping. This could be my last post for a couple days; it's likely we will take a significant hit from Hurricane Ike, and there's no telling whether power, internet or phone service will be available. Never thought I'd be riding out a Category 3 hurricane as part of my Americorps term of service, but it's one more thing to cross off my Bucket List and will make a pretty cool story if it heads for us.

Anyway. The Red Cross seems to be slowly usurping FEMA's long-held position of the most disorganized agency in a given disaster area. In the week since we flew down to Baton Rouge, we've had four different housing locations and, with the exception of one shift at the Alexandria mega shelter, have accomplished little in the way of meaningful work. Say what you will about every job being important, but there's no reason why a team of relatively well-trained Americorps workers should spend their time on a disaster deployment sweeping the floors in a staff shelter or restocking the bathrooms with toilet paper. Every once in a while we'll unload a truck full of supplies, but half the time we find out that the truck went to the wrong place, or the supplies aren't needed anymore...the list goes on and on. It really is amazingly frustrating, not being able to do anything relevant due to the Red Cross' inability to figure out what the fuck they need done and where the fuck they need it. To hearken back to my post from Denver International Airport, this is NOT why I joined Americorps.

From the path (kinda) of the storm...