Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A "rain event"

We are, at this writing, still being pelted by rain from Tropical Storm Fay.

As Louise has written, we are parked a couple blocks from relief HQ, in an honest-to-goodness camping space graciously provided by the (undisclosed) landlord of our temporary HQ facility, with a 50-amp pedestal and a water spigot.

Fay seems to have spared us, and most of Florida, any significant (read: damaging) winds. Instead, it has maintained a tenacious amount of organization over land, and has dumped huge amounts of rain on vast tracts of the state. We are in the crook of the pivot as the storm makes its "boomerang" turn back inland, and so the rain has been incessant here for well over 24 hours, with probably another 8-12 hours to go. Points east and south of here have gotten even more. That makes this storm a "rain event" rather than a "wind event," from a response perspective.

CNN was reporting earlier today that 8,000 homes were flooded in the Port St. Lucie area. While this number is, doubtless, media hyperbole, if even a fraction of that proves to be accurate, what has been a very small operation to this point could mushroom rapidly into a major response.

Ironically, we are being booted out of the ~22,000 square foot facility we are in now (where the whole operation occupies a tiny corner of the cavernous room), and are moving tomorrow afternoon into a ~3,000 square foot union hall that will barely fit the number of relief workers we have today. We are bracing ourselves to move HQ not once, but twice in the next several days if the operation expands.

Odyssey's various leaks have been troublesome in the middle of all this, but we have little time to deal with them during the day. We've been taking turns running home and wringing out microfiber towels. We are hopeful that we'll get a respite from all this rain in the next day or two so things can dry out.

In the meantime, we'll be moving to our new HQ tomorrow night, and we're hoping for at least a 15-amp outlet there to keep some A/C running throughout the day.

3 comments:

  1. Things are winding up. Gustav has everyone stumped over which way he may go. Austin TV said he may end up in the Gulf. You could be headed back this way.

    Another depression is not far behind Gustav. Sheesh!!!

    Glad you are out there. We need you.

    Robin and I will be watching. If you get back this way dinner is on us.

    Good Luck and Thanks for what you do.

    -- Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sean, I need some advice. I saw an old blog from Jan. '07 about the "maximum feature throttle interface module".
    I have a Neoplan AN340. It came with an Allison HT748 and 6V92. I repowered it with a 60 series DDEC-III.
    My question is this, I have the std. throttle interface module (EL05.01.079) that works fine, but I want to hook up my cruise control (original configuration did not have cruise ctrl.). The DDEC manual says to use the maximum feature throttle interface module, but doesn't list a part number! I called Valley Detriot Diesel and they don't know! What do you think? Do I need it? I see that it was a wiring issue for you. Do you happen to have the part #? Did you try and get one from Neopart or anyplace else?
    Thanks, tom@wragger.com
    p.s. I believe I met you at the last convention at The Grand Canyon Caverns. I toured your coach and you showed me the radiator and 8V92.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sean, That was my first blog, I hope I didn't make too many errors. Tom

    ReplyDelete

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