Watching Gustav in horror

We are still in Kissimmee, Florida, at the relief operation for Tropical Storm Fay.

I have a great deal to update since my last post here ten days ago. It's finally slowed down enough here at relief headquarters that I can spend some time writing -- we've been swamped the last ten days, and even our day off was busy with the backlog of household chores and errands, including replacing two leaky recirculating valves and a waterlogged feedhorn drumhead on the satellite dish, not to mention continuing to wring everything out from the part of Fay that actually made it inside the bus. We did take a couple hours to drive over to a local joint and get massages, which were much needed and appreciated.

Some of our readers may be wondering what, if any, impact Hurricane Gustav will have on our lives. To be honest, we are wondering the same thing ourselves. Our current status as assigned to TS Fay precludes us, at least for the current pre-landfall push, from being included in the massive recruitment for Gustav, which now stands at a call for over 4,000 (yes, that's not a typo) volunteers across five separate relief operations (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and the Florida Panhandle). There is no doubt that Gustav will hit hard somewhere along the gulf, just three years after the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita.

That being said, there is some possibility that we will be kept in place here for additional flooding in Florida from the outer bands, which are already hitting here, as shown in this satellite photo (I have indicated our approximate location):




So I guess the immediate impact from Gustav on us will be additional rain (and Odyssey leakage). More importantly, the rivers in Florida are just now cresting over the last day or two from Fay -- we still had over 400 in one shelter in Fort Myers as of yesterday, due to flooding there over the last few days. So any rain dumped here from Gustav will just add to that problem, and perhaps cause this relief operation to extend further. And that does not even count what might come this way from Hanna, already making its way toward us.

All of which add up to us not being available to help with any of the operations west of here, at least in the near term. By the time we are done here, I expect those operations to be well under way and fully staffed (well, at least our department, anyway -- Mass Care will still be looking for help, as well as Client Services). So we may yet end up getting our visit to Disney World in before we leave Florida.

To be honest, our experience en route to this operation is causing me to rethink my commitment to the Red Cross. So whether we will be going to any disasters from here at all is an unanswered question. The details are too lengthy to expound upon here, and I think I'm still a bit too raw to write it up dispassionately. The upshot, though, is that we are collateral damage in somebody's political power game, with the net result that our expenses are being partially reimbursed only from Gainesville, rather than from Port Lavaca, where we were located when we learned we were needed here.

That's a difference of over 1,000 miles, and while we would never have been fully reimbursed for the roughly $900 that distance actually costs us, the few hundred bucks we'd normally see at least makes us feel welcome and needed, in addition to partially offsetting our costs. The money is decidedly not the issue, however -- I have already decided that we'll be reducing our significant annual donation this year by at least that much.

This slap in the face came the morning after the most grueling driving day in Odyssey's history to be available here in a timely way. And it came in the form of being told, in fact, that we would not be assigned to the operation at all, after coming almost the entire distance. Our chapter intervened at the last moment, and managed to get us assigned, but I have been in something of a funk ever since. All this came on the heels of having to fight to get our (partial) reimbursement for our Austin expenses while we were in Mercedes, a battle that took an emotional toll on all involved. So we are feeling, at the moment, a bit unappreciated as volunteers.

Perhaps after this operation is over and we have had a chance to recuperate a bit, I will have some calm time to write more. In the meantime, whether we go out again will have a great deal to do with how (or if) we are asked.