Responding to Katrina

I'm leaving in a few mintues for the airport, heading to the command post in Alexandria, Louisiana, to work on the Hurricane Katrina response. One of my many hats involves mapping in emergency response situations. I've been on 2 real oil spill responses and numerous drills. It's an opportunity of sheer adrenaline and knowing that everything you do is necessary and valuable. The spill in Philadelphia last winter was the largest in human resouces since Valdez in 1989, mostly because of the stretches of river effected and the nuclear power plant being shut down for fear of oil leaching into their valves. We worked 18-20 hour days without getting out of our chairs, often not leaving the hotel/command post for days, going without eating, sucking as much caloric value as possible out of coffee, cream and sugar. This response will be beyond compare. I'm excited to be part of the human machine that is being put in place. Working with a few hundred, or thousand, people in the command post, everyone gunning at their positions, working together to make the machine's pistons move effectively. The command post is the only time I've seen the phrase "team work" actually work. Unlike the typical mundane tasks at work, in a command post, every task is vital.

I'm packed and even threw in extra food from my camping provisions: peanut butter, dried bananas, chocolate chips, energy bars, crackers, and more chocolate. I'm not expecting to ask for anything when so many people have nothing. I hope my little contribution will help this response in some way. When we work together as a machine for humanity, it usually does.