A new cycle::::::::

As some of you might have read…. There were Tornados in Arkansas last week (other places too all the way through Ohio) but the Region 6 part is in Arkansas. They are taking some of our better people from Katrina to go work that disaster and leaving us thin at the top. This is such a strange business to be in…. you look at the weather completely differently when you work like this. The DAE cadre is doing little else these days but preparing for this seasons disasters including trying to get some rest, getting equipment staged and working on leaning up this organization so we can leave it.

Sorry it has been awhile since I wrote. This is kind of the Doldrums of a disaster from a FEMA point of view and from a personal point of view, I am about ready to come home and get started I have rented an apartment in the springs (address etc to follow for you guys that need it) and am handling the lease signing and all through snail mail. I hope to be able to just drive up to the garage and start unloading…. By the way I am going to need a burly guy to help me pull that motorcycle off my trailer when I get there.. any burly guy volunteers out there? Will take no more than ten minutes and I am asking no other work help.. :-D.

For the most part I am just gathering software that I would need if I had to work remotely and alone without a lot of support. When we did this big Network conversion a week ago, I saw a bit of the future here. They had to have the Admin team from Mt. Weather go out to the new staging/COOP site (still called “The Morgue at Carville”) to convert some of the equipment out there. The IT coordinator said “no one knows that place like you Steve so go show them around”…. (eyeroll)… Right after that I was tasked with preparing the site for a staging area for inbound disasters and also for COOP operations. The fun part is I get to go play server administrator again, place everything on the new domain and make the organization of IT out there for the next time it is used extensively. I have this sneaking suspicion when the wind blows again, someone in Region 6 is going to say, “we are gearing up that staging area.. who knows that morgue place better than anyone for the IT lead there?” and off I am again for the boondocks in Louisiana facing an inbound hurricane. Perhaps there is a short story in that………

We had a Region 6 DAE fire himself this morning. It was odd cause it dredged up old memories. He had been on site about 30 days.. and came here from Austin where he had been for the previous 6 months. He left work Friday and we never saw him again although he did call in Mon and Tues. What it sounds like is he went off on an alcoholic bender ….. now you are only allowed to miss 3 days in any disaster or they send you home so when he did not show this morning his supervisor called him and asked about his condition. Obviously drunk he said he was on a flight this afternoon and would not be back, never checked out, never filed any paperwork, left all his stuff in place and just walked. Hmmmmm…I sorta wonder if he is still in a blackout and gonna wake up tomorrow wondering what the heck happened. Disasters are not for everyone even at this stage of the game. These are very desired positions and hard to find and also get assigned to. Oh well!!

I have been sitting in the sun lately getting some color. It has been mid 80’s or higher here every day for the last week and it has felt very nice. I will get to see two late springs this year and that is something else I am looking forward too