Piling it on

I finally found something to do in my free time: volunteer. And in disaster recovery, no less.

Yes, I work more than full time in it already, but this is a bit different: For Hope Village, I rarely leave the campus. Yes, I’ve been out an about a few times, but really, I don’t spend a lot of time in the flood zone.

The Red Cross has decided to resume its sandwich service in the flooded areas here. They did it all last year, but despite me telling them I was ERV certified (that means I took the class to drive the emergency response vehicle and a subsequent defensive driving courts; just try signing up for one of those without getting a ticket first – they think you’re nuts) no one contacted me.

But this year, I got a call early on and went out on Saturday for four hours. Well, maybe a little less than that because I went over the whole map with the guy who did the morning route.The thing was, staring at the map didn’t do much for me. I am totally lost in the area. I know a few of the neighborhoods but not many.

The river snakes through the city; more correctly, I guess, is the city was built around the river. It crosses at least twice, which is why the flood was so devastating. I mean, it was a  FEMA level-5 disaster. That’s the same as Katrina, but no one really knows it.

And driving around, loaded up with sandwiches, water, donuts, chips and water, I spent a couple of hours touring the flooded areas. And some of them just looked horrible. Not even touched at all. It’s just so depressing since we’re really trying to get done this summer. The building season is so short here.

At Hope Village, we do have lots of volunteers coming to work, though. This week it’s not too busy – four teams early in the week, with more coming in – but starting next week we have three solid weeks of at or near capacity. I really hope we’re able to knock out some of the homes.

The rain let up for the weekend, so it was a nice time to get out but because it’s been so crappy lately – and predicted to be again – I don’t think too many people were out and about.

The boardwalk to my RV was more soaked than it’s been, which was quite a feat because it’s been so swampy.

So I wasn’t too disappointed when I wound up keeping my supervisor’s dogs again. He went to Baltimore to do a wedding and the person was supposed to keep them got called out of town on a family emergency.

I’m now at his house with five dogs, but the tradeoff is I have running water and a private bathroom until Tuesday. These things are drastically underrated.

With the exception of the puppy breath, it’s been a great weekend. I’ve been re-watching season four of Arrested Development, writing some grant reviews, playing with spaniels and handing out free food in the flood zone.

It might not be all that exiting, but it’s not too bad, really.