Aftermath: life Slowly returns to "Normal" . . .

Hopefully you can read the wording on the sign; it reads "Delays on Routes to Houston." This alternated with "IH-10 closed at Baton Rouge Louisiana."

No Kidding? Texas Department of Transportation: Masters of the fine art of understatement.

The "Special Needs" Shelter I was working part-time at has closed as they continue to consolidate the remaining refugees at Kelly AFB. Governor Perry has made it quite clear that any and all refugees who want housing in Texas, however temporary, are damned well going to get an apartment, house, trailer, nursing home, or whatever they want, and right now! Probably less than a third of the original Katrina refugees are left at Kelly and the number of Rita refugees is markedly less.

An interesting vignette or two from the disaster zones: one of our elders at Northwest Church is originally from Mississippi. His home church had the roof torn off during Katrina, so we arranged to purchase all the materials to replace the roof and sent it on it's way the first week. When he got there they replaced the roof as congregation members cooordinated relief efforts from the parking lot; serving up barbecue on grills as meat markets donated their stocks that would've gone bad without electricity anyway. (Fortunately for us, God had seen fit for our congregation to pay off our mortgage last month, so we had the cash on hand to do that for them.)

Meanwhle, Max Lucado's Oak Hills Church has been quietly finding refugee families that want to stay in San Antonio and completely furnishing their new apartments/homes with furniture, kitchen items, clothing, and everything they need to start over. They've done it for an uncounted number of familes so far -- and I'm sure they'll try to continue to do it anonymously as long as loudmouths like me don't ruin it.

Two interesting things of a Nursing nature that tie into this as well. One of the reasons I cut back on my volunteering towards the end was the incredible inflexibility of my co-workers. The "Hospital Nurses" couldn't seem to get over the fact that the clinic would frequently shut down when there weren't enough nurses to cover 24/7. To me this seemed to be the logical outcome when (a) you're dealing with volunteer help, and (b) it's a First Aid Clinic -- not a hospital ward, for crying out loud.

The other was the attitude some of the evacuees displayed. One of the Nurses I work with told me that when she was distributing clothing to a 10-year-old-girl, the girl replied "I don't wear Levis, I wear Fubus.."

The nurse asked her, "Honey -- where's your suitcase?"

The girl replied, "I ain't got no suitcase."

The nurse said to her "That's right sugar -- and you ain't got no Fubus, either. These are brand-new Levis -- still got the tags on and everything-- that somebody paid good money so you wouldn't be walking around naked -- like you're about to be if you turn down these Levi's again." The girl took the Levis. When the girl's mother heard what happened she apologized profusely -- said the girl had never had a pair of Fubu jeans in her life.

So, more than a few frustrations, as you might imagine.

Meanwhile, our planned expedition to Galveston this weekend did not come off as planned, as you might guess. Instead we went north 40 miles to San Marcos Texas, which has no less than two huge outlet malls. Ariane and I got some new scrubs for work, and I found a Dickies outlet store (I always wear white Dickies pants with my scrub tops; looks professionally "Nurse-y", and doesn't feel as weird as scrub pants.) Ariane found a "Le Creuset" kitchenware store and dropped the appropriate hints so that I know where to shop for Christmas; a mere 83 days, 4 hours, 1 miute, and 29 seconds away as I write this.

The weather has returned to what passes for normal in South Texas this time of year: blue skies, 90+ degrees, and more sunshine than should be legal.

So, all is well -- if not peachy!

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part V)

What a difference a day makes, indeed.

Pastor Al from Indiana called this morning. He, his wife Betty, and his brother are holed up in a hotel in Schulenburg Texas; halfway between Houston and San Antonio. They were kind of humbled to think God had found them somebody to offer their home to them this far from Indiana, and incredibly grateful. Well, we're all just servants, and i was glad to have been of (potential) service. So they're fine, and may head back to Corpus Christi tomorrow or Sunday, depending on what Rita does in the next 12 hours.

The clouds are again rotating above San Antonio like they did for Katrina; just a LOT closer this time. As the storm has shifted farther to the north the winds have started shifting to the northeast and coming in pretty quickly -- about 20-40 mph gusts. The clouds have filled the normally clear-blue cloudless South Texas skies; rotating counter clockwise overhead.

Awe-inspiring, really.

We're all watching this very warily of course. This damned storm could quite easily take a left turn when it makes landfall and still give San Antonio hell.

But, for now, we appear to have dodged the bullet.

The best part of all is: I'm facing a Saturday where all the shopping, laundry, cleaning, and chores have been done already. Plus I've got a case of chilled Coors in the refrigerator and 2 bags of chip and dip.

I feel a "Lord of the Rings" marathon coming on . . . .

~~JD~~

The View from I-10 Eastbound

The Westbound lanes of IH-10, usually empty during the morning commute, are full of refugees from Galveston/Houston area. The sun rises through a murky mass of impending cloudbank from Rita; still hundreds of miles away but whose cloudtops are easily visible from San Antonio. (Pardon the blurriness; shot on the fly during the morning commute.)

The View from Sam's Club in San Antonio

Thursday afternoon 9/22/2005: It doesn't look too unusual until you notice everyone has 2 or 3 cases of bottled water in their carts. Bottled Water! Also, due to the limitations of my camera, you can't see the lines -- 8-10 people long each.

The Invisible Storm: Texas Steps Up and Kicks Ass in the Aftermath of Katrina.

The city of San Antonio Texas. The obvious allusion is that there's a Storm brewing; but it's more like an earthquake.

The line to unload donated supplies to the warehouses at Kelly AFB. It took me less than 3 minutes to get to the front of this line -- they work really, Really fast! Several of the folks in line were singing hymns as they worked, and a lot of the group joined in on songs they knew.

The line of volunteers (over 50) waiting to undload your vehicle of donations. I saw SUVs, vans, cars, station wagons, buses, and the occaisional 18-wheeler unloaded in rapid fashion. Ants should be this efficient. No messin' around here, bubba. Welcome to Texas.

The first thing you see on entering the warehouses the refugees call "home" is the Red Cross registration desk for Volunteers. Whilst I blurred the pictures deliberately to protect identities, thye actually DO move that fast and efficiently trying to get everyone signed up and working. This airman in particular had been at this desk almost 16 hours, and was looking forward to going home for abite to eat in 8 or 9 hours . . . and then working Saturday as long as they'd let him. "These are my People; I'm from Baton Rouge," he said. "They need our help, and I'm not gonna let them down."

The SECOND thing you see on enteing the the warehouse; row upon row of military field cots. Ugly but quite comfy, there are 175 cots stacked up so everyone can have more than one if necessary. The refugees comforts are being seen to very capably and humanely, indeed.

The Job Fair in progress 24/7 at Kelly AFB in the Refugee quarter. Major employers from all over San Antonio are screening and hiring folks on the spot for everything from truck driving to hair cutting to nurses to engineers. (By the way; I should mention that the refugees are housed in air-conditioned Motor Pool warehouses that ate roughly 100 yards wide by 500 yards long -- and there are FIVE of these monstrous hangars end-to-end full of people!) The Job Fair occupies the entirety of Hangar #2.

The DMAT Medical Teams (Disaster Medical Area Team, I think) who have the absolute WORST bedsidemanner ever. Most of these folks were activated against their will and sent clear across the state to San Antonio on short notice, and their attitude shows.

A view of one smaller shelters in San Antonio; called a "Special Needs" shelter because the occupants have more medical or other problems. Putting these folks in smaller shelters (such as this one ruyn by a local Baptist Church) allows them better attention so that hopefull these folks won't fall between the gaps of a social system stretched incredibly taut.

A few of my co-workers at the shelter I'm volunteering at this week (and most likely this month.) I've worked with nurses from Iowa, Alabama, Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, and even a few from Texas, imagine that!

The face of FEMA: the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In fairness as well as to counter the negative stuff you hear on TV; FEMA has never been designed as a "hands-on" relief agency, but as backup to the Agencies already in place (i.e., your local Red Cross, Catholic Chartities, Salvation Army, and local government.) The FEMA guys appear in their khaki army fatigue pants and navy blue polo shirts and ask what we need; and what we need appears the next day -- in massive quantities. You have to be very careful what you ask for. Yo ask for wheelchairs, you very well might end up with 50 of them. You complain about transportation problems and three brand-new 15-passenger Econoline vans are sitting in your parking lot the next day. You need water? You get three semi trucks full of it before sundown. We've learned to be specific and cautious in our requests.