Giving Back Mapping Katrina and Rita

20 yrs Ago .....like it was yesterday
Started Volunteering at American Red Cross

September 29, 2005

Buddha said when a man came to him and said "I want Happiness"

Buddha told the man

"First remove I for that is EGO"

"Then remove WANT for that is DESIRE"

Then all that is left is HAPPINESS

Katrina hit New Orleans as a CAT 5, and I knew what we were in for as I had modeled the worst scenario with NASA only a year before in Stennis Space Center in Slidell Louisiana.......I knew what was coming.......and quit my job immediately......walked out of the Millineum Hotel in St Louis to head for the Red Cross in Des Moines (my chapter)......I could not stand to watch another minute of people needing something as simple as water and nobody could get it there.......I had to do something.........this was the 29th of September 2005. The levees were breaching in New Orleans.......

Immersion training on the fly and a plane ticket to Houston and in 2 days was heading to the front lines.

After getting into Houston (at Midnight) and all rental cars that were arranged for by the Red Cross...... were being held by Hertz......I hitched a ride into Baton Rouge with a reporter for the LA Times.......listening to shots being fired over his speaker phone from fellow reporters in New Orleans, and going into the darkness a little wary, and I kid you not...... praying.

I went in to Baton Rouge with the Red Cross on Sept 1, 2005, then on to support 5th Army at Ft Sam Houston during RITA, back to the Red Cross in Gulfport MS, and then to FEMA JFO in Austin TX, and did not get back until July 2006.......working in support of Damage Assessment, Transportation Logistics, Displaced Persons relocated across the US.

After a couple weeks I was able to take some off time to go into New Orleans......I went to the Garden District (Fairly Dry During all of it) and tried to find old friends from the Year before......and found that Kenny was dying from being unable to get to his treatment, Monique was dead (was in another part of town), and many had fled, or were just gone.....and nobody knew where they were. Had a few that night, at the Half Moon.....sitting next to a Dr who stared straight ahead, talking slowly, knowing he had to be back on duty soon....and could not get home between shifts any more.

If you get the chance to help others.......you will have found the best work you can ever do and quite possibly, true HAPPINESS

18 hr days and sleeping in Churches and Shelters for the next 5 months.....crying, laughing, hugging, and seeing what had never been seen on an scale that I don't think I could process right away....I was the Happiest I have ever been.......after reaching total exhaustion, Hot Showers, and getting a good breakfast and doing it again and again....and thriving amid ruin........if only to give a smile directions/maps, a hug, damage assessment, getting aid to those who needed it and help to all who were affected by this disaster.............I am blessed to have been able to help ....closed the last Shelter in Gulfport with Jim McCafferty of Philly right after xmas 2005......and then off to Austin TX for FEMA role.