For the Love of Coffee
Forty eight hours ago I finished my last track race of the season. Right now I sit at a table in the small Alexandria, Louisiana, convention center that is home to the U.S. Coast Guard Region 8 command post. The Hurricane Katrina response here is going rather well, given all that is going on at ground zero in New Orleans. The USCG has rescued nearly 10,000 people by the end of today. The maps I produced early this morning showed the Coast Guard boat pilots where they could navigate their skiffs in the flooded areas to ferry people to bigger boats and to safety. We've produced maps of aerial photography that show the flooded areas, hospitals that still have patients and need to be evacuated, nearly 200 oil spill and other contaminant incidents, off shore oil rigs that are damaged, and search and rescue operation bases. When I woke up from my cat nap at the hotel this afternoon and turned on CNN, they were talking about the Coast Guard rescuing people by boat, and for a moment I had some pleasant satisfaction that I was doing some good here. I'm not looking to stand out, I'm looking to work as a piston in the machine that is chugging along to aid these poor people.
Have we had our frustrations? Hell yeah. CNN had our (NOAA’s) aerial photography of flooded New Orleans before we did. And we still don't have it all! What the hell does that tell you when the entertainment industry (yes I said that, they aren't really news any more now are they) can get government photography before their own feds can? Freakin’ Google Earth has more current aerial photos than we do. There are geeks living in their parents' basement with better information than I have right now. Oh, and it's the Labor Day holiday weekend so you can kiss any support from the home office goodbye. Yeah the people here are utterly frustrated with the decisions (or lack thereof) that hinder the response, but that's where problem solving comes into play. Make things work anyway. Push through. Don't cave. Ever. The people literally living in shit can't afford to have you cave.
But I can't complain. Everyone here is wonderful and we're living large everything considered. I eventually got my own hotel room. I pulled the night shift after walking off the plane and the hotel unknowingly gave my room to someone else when I didn't check in at midnight, so I slept for an hour in the lobby this morning waiting for them to clean my room. Then I got a few hours sleep before coming in again. Local people brought brownies, someone even delivered a dozen pizzas, and kids made a bunch of cards for the Coasties. There is good work going on. It's just not all noted in the vacuum of television.
