FEMA Mans Fortress of Solitude

The Air trip was uneventful. I did get virtually strip searched in Midland which would have been much more fun under other cirucumstances. Arrived at Baton Rouge FEMA operations about 1 and went home about 6. Found perhaps the last room in the city to stay at, and will be moving if I can find something open during the next couple weeks closer to work, I am about half an hour away down some very busy and ugly streets.

The room is ok, the hotel has lots of evacuees here, what seems like thousands of kids loitering around the front door. It has a microwave and toaster and fridge. It is the Crestwood Suites on Sherwood forest Blvd.. (yes.. rob from the rich, give to the poor place)and is 225-2915200.

FEMA is pretty crazy, there are lots of odd things to get used to. Over 3,000 people in the place where I work. It is literally an abandoned mall (I am reminded of Dawn of the Dead). Everyone has a laptop, wireless connections are common, but there are waist thick bundles of cables and chellenges to be overcome.. crazy. Hours are 7 am to 6 pm on normal days so... i will see if tomorrow I can take some pictures of this cavernous place.

This is also "doo-gooder" central. I ate at Golden Corral next to a quite large group of uniformed "Victim Chaplains" from Dallas. Bright yellow jackets with GIANT crosses on the back with black pants and yellow bowling looking shirts ..... There were matching Ford Explorer type vehicles out front with logos of "Victim Chaplains" on the doors and BIG ROTATING FLASHING LIGHT BARS ON TOP>>>.... I could only think that if they drove up to someone in dire need of immediate prayer or something they could stop traffic so it could proceed without hesistation. It is possible this type side show is common to all disasters but this seemed over the top.. and reminded me I needed to take my camera to Dinner at least.... Who is going to believe there are roving gangs of aged Dallas Bible thumpers with more money than sense invading a disaster area to pray over a bunch of Catholics..... I love this country.

More as energy and time make it available.