Friday::

Sorry guys. Internet has been down for the last three days and has prevented me from blogging recently. I have some prepared and will be presenting them consecutively here for the next few days.

Ok.. I got to brag. This stretch of 70 degree days is amazing. It actually warms UP when it rains here so today is expected to be warmer and rainy and in truth realliy smells like a damp spring morning. They have been doing extensive burning up and down the Mississippi and the outdoors smells like wood smoke and a couple nights ago it was even hazy with smoke at the apartment.

I met a woman from Andrews here at DMORT this week. She just rotated in and is the Finance section Chief for DMORT in region six I think. She is also the justice of the peace and aparently the coronor in Andrews as well. Since this is my official FEMA region six address, it was interesting that I knew so little about the town.. :-) turns out she knows my parents there and had played golf with mom and dad as couples many years ago and that my mom inspired her to be in FEMA or in this case DMORT which she got to by being the coronor of Andrews... odd little world.

I am also liking my new rental car. It is a fully decked out Chevy Impala. Electric everything, nice sound system, cloth seats and a V-8 I think. FEMA gets this for the price of a compact car so I am a very happy boy. Makes my commutes quite comfy. The local Public radio station is very similar to the one in the Springs so I get all my favorite morning and evening programming for that commute. Ok.. it is not perfect as there is not a drive through Starbucks directly on the route (sigh.. the things you must abandon when you are roughing it).

I think I am surprised at how bad things still are in the disaster zone south of us. I think people are not in danger of dying of thirst, hunger or exposure but there is very little movement towards restoration of some normalcy of life in the southern half of this state. The latest uproar is over trailers, who has them, who pays for them, where do they go, who gets them how long do they keep them... what a mess. you have to prepare a site for them and they have to plumb in sewage, power and water and these sites have to be available for the duration of the disaster.. so years. land has been hard to come by, the actual purchase of the units has been slowed by the purchase process... FEMA is saying they want to move in (gulp) 125,000 ??? trailers??? ok.. so the next big wind is gonna stack up a giant tally of trailers. It is very difficult to both believe and sometimes get your arms around some of these numbers. But in Louisiana alone there are over 50,000 people still in hotels and I have no idea how many are in tents, in tents INSIDE their old houses, barns, anything with a roof on it. There is a very healthy debate in New Orleans about whether to put on Mardi Gras there or not. The debate is: If we do not put on this party we will starve in the dark with no income, so lets all go back to work :: vs :: we do not have sewage, power or infrastructure, is this really the best time to shut down and have a party for two weeks??