OKAY FOLKS JOURNAL IS COMING TO CLOSE IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO PLEASE READ THIS AND I WILL POST FINAL SECTIONS TOMORROW I DO HOPE SOME OF YOU ENJOYED THESE WRTITINGS: Day Number Fifteen OOPS…did it again wrote on backside of other page. Oh well save pages EH? O.K. today is another day the 18th of September so somehow my day count got screwed up will figure it out later… Lets see I started on the 3rd of September and today is the 18th so that makes fifteen days I have been down here…sounds about right cause I came down on Saturday and today is Sunday… O.K. got it straitened out now. New wave of people came here last night seen some from Indiana Brazil to be exact. Seemed kind of pushy but I just blew her off. Today got up way,way,way too early. But I’ll probably sleep on the way home from Orleans today. Hope it has something to take pictures of but not too much to write cause I have a feeling will be writer again. Not a bad job just too messy to keep up with the guys on street numbers , street names and everything else…Well it is 20 till 7 a.m. So need to quit for now be back tonight need to go to Orleans. O.K. have about 20 minutes to write something. Alrighty lets start this a little differently end to beginning. Just got done having a night out with the guys and gals from my group. I had catfish, shrimp and fries and water. We (my Fault) got lost or at least on the wrong exit coming home but we made it. We had a little meeting about us getting out of cars mainly myself. We only did it cause a family needed assistance so we helped them. Got our assignment for tomorrow need to be ready by 7 a.m. after waking up at 4 a.m. this morning I am afraid I might be late, Oh well. Went to Orleans Parish New Orleans community, man never seen anything so BAD!!! Boats , cars and even houses on their sides… looked really neat took lots of pictures. Got a new car today too, I thought I would mention it before I forget. Well I need to start making arrangements for me to come home going to start probably tomorrow if I get back in time…Well better hurry before lights out, Just want to mention I only seen a little compared to actual “Ground Zero”. Lights out talk more tomorrow. Day Number Eighteen 9/20/2005, It has been 2 days since last writing, reason being cause last night actually yesterday, they let some people back in New Orleans. That made traffic so bad, that it took almost 4 hours to go from Baton Rouge to N.O. And one of the cars we were using ended up having ½ tank of gas…that is one of the criteria if your car runs low head back to H.Q. so we did. When we did make it back we got orders to go move down to a freshly opened shelter so we had less than 1 hour to get ready and be on road. Got down here around 11 p.m. or so while down here heard that N.O. was being evacuated again…But not us, yet. So we slept got up got around and started our day looking at houses and stuff. Just almost got done with day worth of work and phone rang to evacuate area. We thought because of Hurricane Rita but back at the new shelter seen President Bush fly over, I think that is the real reason know for sure around 8 p.m. National rep will be here to brief us. So right now don’t really know much… let you know as soon as I do know. (Note to reader: This is about when everyone was afraid of Rita and her damage that she may cause in the near future, So we thought anyhow. After the day progressed I got to thinking, since earlier that day we seen President Bush fly over and he went to N.O. I think they got the people out that didn’t need to be there for his safety. Never really know I guess. And never did find out anything from Nat Rep. By the way I didn’t help but did watch two or three people put together a shower outside the second church I was staying at sure is neat watching these guys they really know what they are doing in a time of need. Good Job Ed and Marty.) As of right now under new leadership and he is a strong minded old man a real pain in the behind but I only need to work him couple more days… Thank GOD, I don’t think he is fit to run the show. But I am not the one who put him in this position. Well my flight has been changed… from Baton Rouge to Atlanta to Ft.Wayne so I‘ll be home 24th at around 4 p.m. providing Rita don’t cause any problems. Day Number Nineteen 9/21/2005, Alrighty coming to the start of the end of my duties down here, Shame it is over but glad at the same time. Let me give you a quick highlight before going on. We seen a barge and dry-dock up on shore of the Mississippi total weight 1,200,000 tons or 2,400,000,000 pounds!!! We shot some pictures will share with everyone. O.K. back to the start of the day woke up just like any other day just a different hour, had some coffee and had a meeting, got team assignments and went out to do our job. Seen so many neat things, not tree damage but flood… Heard a story from a guy and one of his family members stayed the storm out on top of house trailer and the only thing that saved his family was. Next door to him, was a CSX railroad yard and just so happens 2- 4 locomotives was in the area and as the wave came there they bent into a “V” shape deflecting the wave around his home. He also mentioned the waves were over 10 –12 feet tall. As I stated earlier this train derailed , got pictures of cars (train) off their wheels several places. One was full of Sulfuric Acid, beside a creek to make things worse. Seen a trucking yard with truck trailers stacked on top of each other. Right, well not no more. Going back to the story about the family an the train engine, he said there in front of his business there was a tractor (Semi) floated down from he don’t know where, heard several stories like that. Amazing what Mother Nature can do. As I mentioned earlier about the barge, truck, train and boxcars that was some force behind Katrina. I am sure my end here is soon over. I am leaving my position and my job but like I have said before someone better if not the same as me will take over… The job itself is over for DA that is until Rita hits Texas should be Friday. Ironic isn’t it. Well I guess I will go for now need to talk with someone. Day Number Twenty 9/22/2005, All right 1½ days to go today we had the day off and nothing to do but drive around tomorrow we have to a meeting at 8 a.m. just to let us know our job is done in LA. And some will be deployed to Texas or where Rita hits… Last word to us was Galveston Texas and turns head for Baton Rouge, just as I get ready to fly out… Looking forward to rough ride, if it don’t get canceled all together. Tonight made a beeline for BR or should I say Denham Springs, cause of Rita causing Mississippi to come out of her banks again, at least started the levees to leak again. We was at one of the canals that doubled in leakage in way short period of time so we high tailed it to another one seen the bags of sand that they used to plug the leaks up with got bunches and bunches of pictures of that…need to share. ( Note to reader: just so you know the levee that is talked about here did in fact break that night it is the one at the 9th Ward the surge from Rita had raised the Mississippi up to where the levee could no longer hold at the repaired site. The second levee I am talking about is the 17th street levee… it was saved because the put in some kind of barrier at the mouth so it would not receive the surge.) Seen foundations where houses once stood all that is left… ( Note to reader: What I was meaning here was the force of the break in the levees was so great it was like a pressure washer that just washed the houses away, and all that was left was their foundations. No driveways no side walks nothing.) Seen so many water lines so high up it was just unbelievable sure can not wait to get home to my computer to see if they turned out (the pictures that is). I want to mention I woke up today found car I rented have two flat tires so we traded cars out with Avis… we kept joking we was going to get another set of flats. ( Just so you know there was so much debris during our drives that it was almost impossible to not get a flat during any of out drives. I also want to mention we had a flat already and the Sears store in the area had fixed it for free just because they knew who we were and what we was doing. They said if it had been anyone else they would have had to turn us away cause it was closing time.) Tomorrow need to pack only things I wont need so I will be ready for my flight Saturday. Well getting tired so I am hitting the hay but before go just wanted to say I would do it all over again if I had the chance…I don’t want Rita to be very bad but sure would be neat to be called again, So goodnight till tomorrow.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:51:51 +0000
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