spending Thursday in the field

By Thursday the processes that I have implemented are fairly well on their way. Things are running as smoothly as possible, and after the initial tools trucks make their deliveries, I decide to take out a 'roaming' tool truck. I fill the bed with miscellaneous tools, some water bottles, extra radio batteries, etc., and ask Andre if he wants to ride along with me since he has been in the neighborhoods quite a bit & could help navigate.

Navigating the streets is very difficult, as most of the street signs are missing, and finding accurate/up-to-date maps is also hard, but we make do. While driving around, I see more of the markings that are on each home, left by the first-responders, looking for bodies. There are markings on some of the homes referencing pets (dogs found, dogs heard but not found, cats found, etc.). Very interesting & eerie reading what was found when and where.

While cruising around, we have a number of calls over the radio for a number of items that we are carrying, and make the deliveries as quickly as possible. We spend a couple of hours making deliveries, and then are stopped by a team of volunteers who tell us that there is a resident on another street who is very upset at one of our teams, because some debris has apparently flown from one of our debris piles & broken his windshield. On the way to the site, we see the fire chief (his radio battery is dead, so we give him a new one, and fill him in on what is happening). We then head over to see if our team is ok, as the resident has apparently been shouting at them for quite a while now.



Maybe it's just me (and Andre), but it seems strange that a resident would bring his new lincoln town car into this neighborhood, where there are debris piles in front of nearly every home, and while the winds are very strong (like today), and not expect something to happen to it. While we are talking to the team, we notice no fewer than 10 piles in sight, and there is no way that the person could blame our team (or even the pile at this particular house) for any damage, but he is convinced that it's their fault.

After the chief talks with the resident, he has the police come by for a report, but tells the resident that it is obvious (by the discoloration of the film in the window) that the crack had happened many weeks earlier. The resident continues on his rant, and we continue on our qwest to supply out teams in the field.


Shortly after lunch time, a decision is made to pull the teams (very quickly) out of the field, as there are very strong winds back at base camp, and there is even a tornado warning in a neighboring area. We make the decision to have the tool trucks dispatched immediately to recover as many of the tools as possible before the storm hits, and before any of the neighbors (or other construction teams in the area) walk off with any of our stuff. To help, I decide to also use the bed of our truck to pick up as many sets of tools as we can, so that the 3 tools trucks can make fewer stops & get everything back to camp as quickly as possible.

It was amazing to me that there are still downed powerlines (this is why there is nearly no power throughout the town still), and vehicles & boats spread everywhere... below are a few more of the pics I took on this day.