A Sudden Rush of Efficiency?

ExtendedStay America
Austin, TX

Unsurprisingly, we have moved again. The Red Cross finally released us from their disaster relief operation, and we've been reassigned through the Denver campus to work with FEMA in Texas. After a seven-hour drive from Lafayette to Austin, we settled in at this ExtendedStay (which, to be honest, beats the hell out of a volunteer shelter). Today, we drove into the FEMA headquarters here in Austin, set up on both floors of an old department store at one end of a large mall. After going through the registration and screening process (to make sure we weren't secretly subversives trying to wreak havoc on...the disaster response, I suppose), we had a mind-numbingly boring two hours of training.

What happened next was the surprising part. A Unit Leader from the Perry Point campus got up and told us that we would have two days off here in Austin, then we would be assigned to a number of local DRCs (Disaster Response Centers) in and around the affected areas. Our job would be to run the intake and registration for these centers, giving the regular FEMA staff members the opportunity to start doing client casework. This shocked me...not because of the nature of our job or anything, but rather the fact that we were being told exactly what we had been assigned to do. FEMA, of all organizations, had apparently the wherewithal to realize the asset they had in our several Americorps teams, and had been able to assign us to somewhere where we could do some good. Shocking!

Of course, with three days until we're actually sent out, there are still some uncertainties. For example, we are not sure where exactly we will be assigned. I, for one, am hoping for Houston...but it's possible that we will be going to Beaumont (AGAIN?!) or the devastated region of Galveston. We also do not know our housing, whether it will be hotels (crossing my fingers for that one, obviously), staff shelters, or camping. But it's nice to have at least a tentative timeline, and an even more firm job assignment.