Sundays in a Morgue:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Sundays in a Morgue:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Happy days!!!... we had a “gate incident” yesterday evening that has everyone a bit jumpy here today. It follows closely on the heels of one more public problem that happened at the JFO two days ago where a man with a big knife wanted to “cut a FEMA employee” and has prompted emails suggesting we wear nothing FEMA on the outside of our work. Our incident was a family that is sure that their family member is being held here and were crashing the gate to rescue this poor dead person. We presume they are thinking that they could just tell which is theirs from the remains and pick them up out of the hundreds that are here. In a way this is the problem with being so secretive with these things, it creates an aura of distrust that somehow we are keeping information from people that they could better interpret than these professionals. I saw perhaps 20 body bags in the morgue for autopsy yesterday all on mobile stainless steel tables and none of them more than 8 inches thick. Certainly not a shape recognizable as a human in there at all. Our gate crashers are very lucky as all these guards are armed and most are recently back from the military in Iraq …. I am certain no one wants any additional victims.
Urban Legends::::: The latest one is from New Orleans …. The worst Urban Legends are the ones that are just barely possible… This one is especially heinous as it is especially racial and hateful. It is now passed around that the Corps of Engineers purposefully blew up the levees in the poor areas of New Orleans to relieve pressure on the levees so that more affluent (read here the color white) neighborhoods would be spared the worst of the flooding. This one has apparently gone national in some regard so if you hear it do not be surprised. I have seen the maps and laid my hands on the 3d table maps of the flooded areas and while the poorer parts flooded worse, there were plenty of breaks in middle class neighborhoods and.. it presumes a level of coherence within the corps I am not sure exists… I bet that this one stays around for awhile.. see if the congress investigates it. FEMA T shirts in New Orleans now read Federal Employees Missing Again and Fix Everything My Ass.
I love my weather here. I had half a day off yesterday so that I opened the double back doors to my patio and sat essentially on the outside till almost ten pm. It was 72 degrees till then….. I am loving my winter without snow. This part of the world WILL feed you. I have never seen such giant portions in all my life. If I ate my Per Diem here I would weigh 1100 lbs in six months…….
News on the political front. FEMA rarely keeps contractors on past the initial setup of a disaster, taking in Local Hires and DAE’s (like me) to handle the work load as the Disaster matures. We are at the time when the contractors (several of them extremely talented folk) are being pared back and all are not eligible to be converted to local hires or DAE’s and it is pretty high tension here about this transition. It did happen quickly and last night so I am all alone here today and may only have one helper here for my duration here. I am going to be on call from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.. oh.. and also from 8:00 pm to 7:00 am J… gosh.. that is 24 hour call!! Imagine my time sheet if you will… good thing I am used to working with people on the phone solving issues eh?? Things are running smoothly so life is good here at last.
Happy days!!!... we had a “gate incident” yesterday evening that has everyone a bit jumpy here today. It follows closely on the heels of one more public problem that happened at the JFO two days ago where a man with a big knife wanted to “cut a FEMA employee” and has prompted emails suggesting we wear nothing FEMA on the outside of our work. Our incident was a family that is sure that their family member is being held here and were crashing the gate to rescue this poor dead person. We presume they are thinking that they could just tell which is theirs from the remains and pick them up out of the hundreds that are here. In a way this is the problem with being so secretive with these things, it creates an aura of distrust that somehow we are keeping information from people that they could better interpret than these professionals. I saw perhaps 20 body bags in the morgue for autopsy yesterday all on mobile stainless steel tables and none of them more than 8 inches thick. Certainly not a shape recognizable as a human in there at all. Our gate crashers are very lucky as all these guards are armed and most are recently back from the military in Iraq …. I am certain no one wants any additional victims.
Urban Legends::::: The latest one is from New Orleans …. The worst Urban Legends are the ones that are just barely possible… This one is especially heinous as it is especially racial and hateful. It is now passed around that the Corps of Engineers purposefully blew up the levees in the poor areas of New Orleans to relieve pressure on the levees so that more affluent (read here the color white) neighborhoods would be spared the worst of the flooding. This one has apparently gone national in some regard so if you hear it do not be surprised. I have seen the maps and laid my hands on the 3d table maps of the flooded areas and while the poorer parts flooded worse, there were plenty of breaks in middle class neighborhoods and.. it presumes a level of coherence within the corps I am not sure exists… I bet that this one stays around for awhile.. see if the congress investigates it. FEMA T shirts in New Orleans now read Federal Employees Missing Again and Fix Everything My Ass.
I love my weather here. I had half a day off yesterday so that I opened the double back doors to my patio and sat essentially on the outside till almost ten pm. It was 72 degrees till then….. I am loving my winter without snow. This part of the world WILL feed you. I have never seen such giant portions in all my life. If I ate my Per Diem here I would weigh 1100 lbs in six months…….
News on the political front. FEMA rarely keeps contractors on past the initial setup of a disaster, taking in Local Hires and DAE’s (like me) to handle the work load as the Disaster matures. We are at the time when the contractors (several of them extremely talented folk) are being pared back and all are not eligible to be converted to local hires or DAE’s and it is pretty high tension here about this transition. It did happen quickly and last night so I am all alone here today and may only have one helper here for my duration here. I am going to be on call from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.. oh.. and also from 8:00 pm to 7:00 am J… gosh.. that is 24 hour call!! Imagine my time sheet if you will… good thing I am used to working with people on the phone solving issues eh?? Things are running smoothly so life is good here at last.
posted by Steve Morse- Adventures in Disasters at 5:53 PM
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