December 2005
Here
we are, Austin, TX working for FEMA at the Joint Field Office serving
evacuees from Katrina and Rita. How did we get here?
Last Spring, we took a five week hiatus from selling RVs and headed north to Ohio for the Dayton Hamvention. We traveled with our co-workers, Melissa and Joe, our good friends Becky and Harold and then in Knoxville, we met up with our friends Pappy and Cecile. All of us traveled on to Ohio and we said good-bye to Melissa and Joe.
After the Hamvention, Libby and I went on to Indianapolis for the Indy 500. On the way back to Florida, we stopped in Gaffney, SC so I could attend Camp Freightliner. As we left South Carolina, we looked at each other as we were really feeling the heat and humidity and decided maybe we should just make a right turn and head for Montana!
When we got back to Okeechobee, we called our friend who is a realtor and put the house on the market. We sold it in four weeks, closing one day after a full year of ownership. That way we don't have to pay short term capital gains. Buying that house in 2004, just reaffirmed our belief that we need to be fulltime rvers. We made a bundle on the ownership of that house though, so it was a good thing after all.
So late in August, we were sitting in the KOA in Okeechobee waiting to see what Hurricane Katrina was going to do. We were under a hurricane warning, but the day the storm hit, it veered south and missed us, instead, hitting Ft Lauderdale and Miami. It was their turn anyway. We had two in 04. (of course, late in the season, Hurricane Wilma roared through Okeechobee, but we were in Texas by then)
We headed up the east coast and hit the big Shelby, NC hamfest before moving on to Blairsville and dentist and doctor appointments. As usual, our medical folks were wonderful, getting us in on short notice and getting our dental work done in record time, so we could head west to Livingston to become Texans again.
We had to wait out Hurricane Rita before heading west. We finally left Blairsville on Wednesday after Rita came ashore in east Texas. We headed west toward Gasden, Alabama, driving along US 411 which had a long, linear flea market going that day. It must have covered 100 miles or so. It was quite a site, but slowed traffic a bit more than we wanted.
We filled up with diesel in Rainbow City, Al, paying $2.59 per gallon. Ouch! We then turned west on I 20 and spent the night in Meridian, MS.
There was a significant amount of damage from Hurricane Katrina as far north as Meridian. It was quite amazing to see large scale damage that far from the coast.
We arrived at Rainbow's End on Thursday and on Friday, we hoofed it into town, got the vehicles inspected, got our drivers licenses, got our license plates and bought insurance all before 5pm. It sure is easy to do this stuff in Livingston. This is our second trip to Livingston to do this and it was just like 1999 all over again. Those folks sure know how to deal with fulltimers.
The hurricane damage at RE was minimal, but the park was almost empty when we arrived. We stayed for two weeks and it was almost back to normal by the time we left. We were waiting for a government credit card so I could report to FEMA, but the card provider didn't seem to understand what overnight meant.
Since we were just sitting at RE, when the American Radio Relay League asked for volunteers to go with Salvation Army mobile canteens over in Jasper, we volunteered. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we drove the 50 miles from Livingston to Jasper to help out. We provided communications for Salvation Army Canteen number 1 as they traveled a circuitous route through rural east Texas. No power, no utilities at all. No air conditioning with temps in the mid 90s and humidity up there too. In Dam B, ( a real town) we dropped off meals at the volunteer fire department and also provided commodities like toilet paper, canned juice, diapers etc. Libby and I hauled the commodities in our truck while the Salvation Army brought the hot meals.
Our next stop was the largest in the town of Spurger. We spent about an hour in Sperger making sure the meals were available for everyone who drove up. We handed out lots of soap, fresh fruit and many packages of diapers. Then Libby and I took orders for the next day.
After Sperger, we headed east for a little community on the Neches River. This place was pretty hard hit. I don't think that any structure in that community was intact, except for the church. These folks were just great though. One older lady told Libby that she was alive and that was all she needed. Everything else could be replaced and that was the attitude of most of those folks. Good country folk who helped each other, didn't really want to take charity and figured that they could replace their stuff and move on with their lives.
Our next and last stop was at Magnolia Springs. The people who showed up for food at that volunteer fire department were few and far between. Libby asked the fire chief where they all were. He told her that they would come after we left. Proud folks who didn't want to be seen taking charity. Let me tell you, those three days were inspiring to us. No way you could face those folks and not be proud to be an American and a Texan. They were just doing what it took to get going again.
We shopped at the distribution center when we got back. It was at the Oakcrest Baptist Church just west of Jasper. The Baptist and Methodist Men's groups were cooking in giant kettles. The Red Cross and Salvation Army were taking hot meals to thousands of hurricane victims. The ham radio operators were going with the Salvation Army because the Red Cross had its own radio network. (at least for a few days) 18 wheelers were rolling in all day and night. Thousands of boxes were stacked in the parking lot. We loaded up our truck for the next days run and then headed back to Livingston for the night.
On Friday, just as we were starting to head out, the manager of the distribution center asked us if we would take 300 hot meals to Evadale. We said sure and unloaded all of our commodites, replacing them with hot meals for some folks who were either overlooked in the days count or just plain skipped.
We rolled down US 69 toward Beaumont and as expected, the damage got worse as we headed toward the coast. Absolutely no power anywhere. Of course, with no power, no fuel could be pumped at the gas stations that still had gas. No traffic lights. No food service. It was 2004 in Florida all over again. We sure felt like Deja Vu, we have done this before.
The folks in Evadale were very happy to see us but more than the food, they were happy to get the two cases of mosquito repellant we had left in the truck. After we made sure everything was ok with the food we brought to Evadale, we turned north and headed back to Livingston. Near Lumberton, we found a Sonic that was open and had a nice hot lunch. We arrived back at Rainbow's End and settled in for a few days to wait for our credit card from the government.
On Tuesday, the FEMA credit card arrived, FEMA called me and deployed me to Austin, TX where the Joint Field Office is handling the Texas side of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. We arrived in Austin on Wednesday afternoon, October 12 and I immediately went to the JFO. I worked until 6 that evening and since that day, have worked 8-6 everyday except Sunday. They worked 12 hour days for three weeks, seven days a week, before I got there. The first Sunday I was in Austin, they didn't work. We are now working 9-5 on Saturdays and 8-6 Monday through Friday. I will have more to say about working for FEMA in a later update.
When we arrived at the Oak Forest RV park, I didn't have time to set up the internet dish until the following Sunday. It took me four placements to find a place where I could see the bird and I got so frustrated that I went inside and said to Lib, "let's get a MotoSat" She agreed and a few days later and $5 grand lighter, we joined the automated internet group. Something I said earlier on our website that I would never do. So much for saying never!
At Thanksgiving, we rotated out for a week and traveled to our second home, The Ranch. We left on Saturday before Thanksgiving and drove to Pecos, TX to stay at TraPark for the night. When we got up on Sunday morning, it was 28 degrees. That is the coldest weather we had been in for two years. (it got colder in Austin last week) We arrived at The Ranch about 10:00 am on Sunday and were greeted by the ringing bell and lots of old friends. We parked next to Dave and Sally Stribling, our friends from Alaska and settled in for our almost week in New Mexico.
We had dinner out that night in Artesia and then ate out again on Tuesday at our Elk's Lodge in Carsbad. We ate Thanksgiving with 110 of our closest friend and then had dinner out on Friday with Dave and Sally at Chili's in Carlsbad. Friday noon, Libby and I ate lunch at the Y cafe. Our favorite burger joint in Carlsbad. We also ate breakfast at Chaos in Artesia so you can see we ate our way through the week.
Friday afternoon, Libby and I took Dave and Sally to Sitting Bull Falls, a spectacular waterfall not too far from Carlsbad and maybe 20 miles north of Carlsbad Caverns. Neat place. Dave and Sally had been there several times and wanted us to see it.
We headed back to Austin on Saturday, after Thanksgiving, spending the night at the KOA in Junction, TX. We arrived back at Oak Forest RV park about noon on Sunday.
Driving I 10 in west Texas on our round trip, we passed the big windmill power farm owned by FPL group the parent company of Florida Power and Light. Its an awesome sight, those hundreds of wind generators spinning around out there in the wilds of west Texas.
At this point, mid December, we figure we will leave Austin in mid February and not work again until next fall. Alaska is on our radar screen again for this summer, but we will miss going to Quartzsite. We will still be in Austin during January, so once again, no Q for The Rolling Home.
There is no point in posting expenses for this time in Austin. FEMA is picking up the campground fee and also paid us mileage to get here from Austin. Its a lot cheaper for them than others who are working here because they are all staying in hotels. This is a great job for fulltimers and I'll explain what I do and how it works next month.
Today, we headed two miles up the road to the Austin RC club flying field where I had my first solo flight with one of my electric RC planes. It was going pretty well until the wind kicked up. I had to bring the plane down rather quickly and unknown to me, some of the hardware that holds the control cables to the tail section failed. After three more crashes, I figured something must be wrong and took the plane home! This pic is what it looked like before my
abrupt endings! Off to the hobby store tomorrow to get some spare parts!
Last Spring, we took a five week hiatus from selling RVs and headed north to Ohio for the Dayton Hamvention. We traveled with our co-workers, Melissa and Joe, our good friends Becky and Harold and then in Knoxville, we met up with our friends Pappy and Cecile. All of us traveled on to Ohio and we said good-bye to Melissa and Joe.
After the Hamvention, Libby and I went on to Indianapolis for the Indy 500. On the way back to Florida, we stopped in Gaffney, SC so I could attend Camp Freightliner. As we left South Carolina, we looked at each other as we were really feeling the heat and humidity and decided maybe we should just make a right turn and head for Montana!
When we got back to Okeechobee, we called our friend who is a realtor and put the house on the market. We sold it in four weeks, closing one day after a full year of ownership. That way we don't have to pay short term capital gains. Buying that house in 2004, just reaffirmed our belief that we need to be fulltime rvers. We made a bundle on the ownership of that house though, so it was a good thing after all.
So late in August, we were sitting in the KOA in Okeechobee waiting to see what Hurricane Katrina was going to do. We were under a hurricane warning, but the day the storm hit, it veered south and missed us, instead, hitting Ft Lauderdale and Miami. It was their turn anyway. We had two in 04. (of course, late in the season, Hurricane Wilma roared through Okeechobee, but we were in Texas by then)
We headed up the east coast and hit the big Shelby, NC hamfest before moving on to Blairsville and dentist and doctor appointments. As usual, our medical folks were wonderful, getting us in on short notice and getting our dental work done in record time, so we could head west to Livingston to become Texans again.
We had to wait out Hurricane Rita before heading west. We finally left Blairsville on Wednesday after Rita came ashore in east Texas. We headed west toward Gasden, Alabama, driving along US 411 which had a long, linear flea market going that day. It must have covered 100 miles or so. It was quite a site, but slowed traffic a bit more than we wanted.
We filled up with diesel in Rainbow City, Al, paying $2.59 per gallon. Ouch! We then turned west on I 20 and spent the night in Meridian, MS.
There was a significant amount of damage from Hurricane Katrina as far north as Meridian. It was quite amazing to see large scale damage that far from the coast.
We arrived at Rainbow's End on Thursday and on Friday, we hoofed it into town, got the vehicles inspected, got our drivers licenses, got our license plates and bought insurance all before 5pm. It sure is easy to do this stuff in Livingston. This is our second trip to Livingston to do this and it was just like 1999 all over again. Those folks sure know how to deal with fulltimers.
The hurricane damage at RE was minimal, but the park was almost empty when we arrived. We stayed for two weeks and it was almost back to normal by the time we left. We were waiting for a government credit card so I could report to FEMA, but the card provider didn't seem to understand what overnight meant.
Since we were just sitting at RE, when the American Radio Relay League asked for volunteers to go with Salvation Army mobile canteens over in Jasper, we volunteered. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we drove the 50 miles from Livingston to Jasper to help out. We provided communications for Salvation Army Canteen number 1 as they traveled a circuitous route through rural east Texas. No power, no utilities at all. No air conditioning with temps in the mid 90s and humidity up there too. In Dam B, ( a real town) we dropped off meals at the volunteer fire department and also provided commodities like toilet paper, canned juice, diapers etc. Libby and I hauled the commodities in our truck while the Salvation Army brought the hot meals.
Our next stop was the largest in the town of Spurger. We spent about an hour in Sperger making sure the meals were available for everyone who drove up. We handed out lots of soap, fresh fruit and many packages of diapers. Then Libby and I took orders for the next day.
After Sperger, we headed east for a little community on the Neches River. This place was pretty hard hit. I don't think that any structure in that community was intact, except for the church. These folks were just great though. One older lady told Libby that she was alive and that was all she needed. Everything else could be replaced and that was the attitude of most of those folks. Good country folk who helped each other, didn't really want to take charity and figured that they could replace their stuff and move on with their lives.
Our next and last stop was at Magnolia Springs. The people who showed up for food at that volunteer fire department were few and far between. Libby asked the fire chief where they all were. He told her that they would come after we left. Proud folks who didn't want to be seen taking charity. Let me tell you, those three days were inspiring to us. No way you could face those folks and not be proud to be an American and a Texan. They were just doing what it took to get going again.
We shopped at the distribution center when we got back. It was at the Oakcrest Baptist Church just west of Jasper. The Baptist and Methodist Men's groups were cooking in giant kettles. The Red Cross and Salvation Army were taking hot meals to thousands of hurricane victims. The ham radio operators were going with the Salvation Army because the Red Cross had its own radio network. (at least for a few days) 18 wheelers were rolling in all day and night. Thousands of boxes were stacked in the parking lot. We loaded up our truck for the next days run and then headed back to Livingston for the night.
On Friday, just as we were starting to head out, the manager of the distribution center asked us if we would take 300 hot meals to Evadale. We said sure and unloaded all of our commodites, replacing them with hot meals for some folks who were either overlooked in the days count or just plain skipped.
We rolled down US 69 toward Beaumont and as expected, the damage got worse as we headed toward the coast. Absolutely no power anywhere. Of course, with no power, no fuel could be pumped at the gas stations that still had gas. No traffic lights. No food service. It was 2004 in Florida all over again. We sure felt like Deja Vu, we have done this before.
The folks in Evadale were very happy to see us but more than the food, they were happy to get the two cases of mosquito repellant we had left in the truck. After we made sure everything was ok with the food we brought to Evadale, we turned north and headed back to Livingston. Near Lumberton, we found a Sonic that was open and had a nice hot lunch. We arrived back at Rainbow's End and settled in for a few days to wait for our credit card from the government.
On Tuesday, the FEMA credit card arrived, FEMA called me and deployed me to Austin, TX where the Joint Field Office is handling the Texas side of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. We arrived in Austin on Wednesday afternoon, October 12 and I immediately went to the JFO. I worked until 6 that evening and since that day, have worked 8-6 everyday except Sunday. They worked 12 hour days for three weeks, seven days a week, before I got there. The first Sunday I was in Austin, they didn't work. We are now working 9-5 on Saturdays and 8-6 Monday through Friday. I will have more to say about working for FEMA in a later update.
When we arrived at the Oak Forest RV park, I didn't have time to set up the internet dish until the following Sunday. It took me four placements to find a place where I could see the bird and I got so frustrated that I went inside and said to Lib, "let's get a MotoSat" She agreed and a few days later and $5 grand lighter, we joined the automated internet group. Something I said earlier on our website that I would never do. So much for saying never!
At Thanksgiving, we rotated out for a week and traveled to our second home, The Ranch. We left on Saturday before Thanksgiving and drove to Pecos, TX to stay at TraPark for the night. When we got up on Sunday morning, it was 28 degrees. That is the coldest weather we had been in for two years. (it got colder in Austin last week) We arrived at The Ranch about 10:00 am on Sunday and were greeted by the ringing bell and lots of old friends. We parked next to Dave and Sally Stribling, our friends from Alaska and settled in for our almost week in New Mexico.
We had dinner out that night in Artesia and then ate out again on Tuesday at our Elk's Lodge in Carsbad. We ate Thanksgiving with 110 of our closest friend and then had dinner out on Friday with Dave and Sally at Chili's in Carlsbad. Friday noon, Libby and I ate lunch at the Y cafe. Our favorite burger joint in Carlsbad. We also ate breakfast at Chaos in Artesia so you can see we ate our way through the week.
Friday afternoon, Libby and I took Dave and Sally to Sitting Bull Falls, a spectacular waterfall not too far from Carlsbad and maybe 20 miles north of Carlsbad Caverns. Neat place. Dave and Sally had been there several times and wanted us to see it.
We headed back to Austin on Saturday, after Thanksgiving, spending the night at the KOA in Junction, TX. We arrived back at Oak Forest RV park about noon on Sunday.
Driving I 10 in west Texas on our round trip, we passed the big windmill power farm owned by FPL group the parent company of Florida Power and Light. Its an awesome sight, those hundreds of wind generators spinning around out there in the wilds of west Texas.
At this point, mid December, we figure we will leave Austin in mid February and not work again until next fall. Alaska is on our radar screen again for this summer, but we will miss going to Quartzsite. We will still be in Austin during January, so once again, no Q for The Rolling Home.
There is no point in posting expenses for this time in Austin. FEMA is picking up the campground fee and also paid us mileage to get here from Austin. Its a lot cheaper for them than others who are working here because they are all staying in hotels. This is a great job for fulltimers and I'll explain what I do and how it works next month.
Today, we headed two miles up the road to the Austin RC club flying field where I had my first solo flight with one of my electric RC planes. It was going pretty well until the wind kicked up. I had to bring the plane down rather quickly and unknown to me, some of the hardware that holds the control cables to the tail section failed. After three more crashes, I figured something must be wrong and took the plane home! This pic is what it looked like before my
abrupt endings! Off to the hobby store tomorrow to get some spare parts!