Changing of the Guard

Extended Stay America
Austin, TX

We're back at the same hotel in Austin that we stayed at before our deployment to Beaumont a month or so ago. FEMA is requiring all of us to return in order to check out...a process that consists of our team leader handing our FEMA badges to the security people at headquarters. Once again, their logic must be above my comprehension. I had to stop by the Joint Field Office to fill out a report (because I am an idiot, I left my badge in Kountze and thus had to account for it) and I was struck by the dozens and dozens of Americorps members I saw there. They were from Denver and Sacramento campuses' Class 15; they had just finished their month of training and were only a day or two into their first project deployments. They had clean uniforms, unmarred by the paint stains, rips, and general wear that distinguish a 'veteran' Corps Member. With nine months of service ahead of them, I could almost see the gleam of anticipation and enthusiasm in their eyes, which I knew well; they were the same feelings that I held when I first arrived in New Orleans at the beginning of March.

I feel a bit bad for the new Americorps teams that have come down to replace us on disaster deployment; they are walking blindly into what could charitably be called an epic clusterfuck. Several of the Denver unit leaders have been giving them the impression that there is a great deal of work to be done down here, and that FEMA has things under control. Nothing could be farther from the truth; the vast majority of the teams currently down here have been short of work and have fallen victim to massive disorganization and incompetence by FEMA and the Red Cross. In fact, the incoming teams have been advised to disregard anything negative that we tell them about the last two months on deployment. That's about as fucked up as it gets; the first real experience that these new Corps Members have of the program is almost certainly going to be frustrating and hugely negative, and they are being kept in the dark about it. Hopefully it gets better for them after first round; it's not nearly as bad of a program as I've made it out to be over the last two months. It's just been pretty crappy lately.

Good luck, Class 15.