This article describes my personal experiences with DOVES.  Of course, your experiences will be quite different.

Escapees RV Club has several Birds of a Feather (BoF) groups specifically designed for RVers to volunteer their services.  These are:

• SOWERS (Servants on Wheels)
• NOMADS (United Methodist Church)
• DOVES (Disaster Operations Volunteer Escapees)

Each of these can be very rewarding.

Personally, I chose to join DOVES.

The DOVES work directly with the American Red Cross. For the victims of disasters (both natural and manmade) assistance from the Red Cross is a huge benefit.

Accommodations at disaster sites are always problematic. It’s common for volunteers to be housed in staff shelters with little more than a small cot.  We DOVES have the distinct advantage that we can sometimes simply drive our homes to the disaster site, complete with our own bedroom, kitchen and bathroom!

Wild Fires

Back in 2015, there was horrible devastation caused by multiple wildfires in California.

Once it became obvious that emergency responses to those wildfires would soon be overwhelming the efforts of their local Red Cross chapter, the call for volunteers was extended nationally, including notifying the DOVEs.

Since I was in South Dakota at the time, it would have been too far for me to drive. But, one of requests was for a new position that they were calling a “Virtual Call Center Agent”.

Whenever the Red Cross responds to a major disaster, they set up a DOCC (Disaster Operations Call Center). Normally, this is a room full of volunteers, each with a computer and a phone. For this disaster, they were trying something new. Each volunteer would register their phone with a special computer application. When a call came into the 800 number, the system would select one of the volunteers and route the call to their cell phone.

That meant that I could sit here in my office inside my RV and respond to California calls for assistance.

The day after the request for volunteers went out, I was attending a training class on how to handle the calls. Of course, the training class was virtual; I was inside my RV.

The very next day, I worked a full shift on the DOCC (Disaster Operations Call Center) for the California fires. My office setup in my RV has two computer screens. In a window on my left computer screen I ran a web browser with several tabs containing information about the fires. On the right computer screen, I ran a call center application, called Transera, which controlled our distributed DOCC.

My Call Center Setup 

When a call came in, information about the origin of the call came up on my screen then my cell phone rang. The caller ID somehow showed the caller ID of the original caller, even though it was actually coming from our call center. I always answered the call with the same initial script: “This is the Red Cross, my name is Ken, may have your name, please?”

Most of the callers were either asking for help or offering assistance.

Often I was able to answer their requests immediately using the information that I had available. If their request was too complex for me to solve over the phone, I entered their information into a call log. Someone in California would then call them back.

I worked as a Call Center Agent for the next two weeks, until the crisis in California was winding down. I simply extended my stay at the campground in South Dakota where I was staying and put my traveling on hold. The campground owners said that they were closing the bath house for the season but I could stay provided my RV was fully self-contained, which it is.  This is one of the many advantages of keeping my travel plans to a minimum.

I learned a lot: about the Red Cross, about the plight of individual victims, about the enormous community support, and about wild fires.

It’s heartbreaking to hear their stories when “clients” call in. To most of the world, these are victims. To us, they are clients. The good news is that I now know that the Red Cross will give them aid. Usually, just listening to them telling their stories helps them feel better.

Many of my callers wanted to help those affected. They’re giving food, supplies, equipment.

Some of those displaced stayed in Red Cross shelters. But, most stayed with friends and family. A few stayed in area churches. Everyone was opening their doors and hearts to them. Nonetheless, I would occasionally get a caller who was living in their car because they couldn’t find anyone else to stay. In a few cases, they had even lost their car and were living on the streets.

One of the surprises, to me, was how long these fires lasted. When I started, the “Rough Fire” incident was winding down. Red Cross had closed its shelters and life for most of those residents was returning to normal. That fire was still burning a month later! Back East, if a fire was still burning 12 hours later it would be all over the news. Here, most everyone had forgotten about the Rough Fire, mainly because the “Valley Fire” and two others did so much damage: 1300 homes destroyed. Thousands of residents were evacuated. This kind of event is extremely rare back east.

My work on the switchboard wasn’t hard. I worked 8-hour shifts but only got 2-5 calls per hour. Most of the time I read books (on my Nook), wrote email, etc. I just had to stay near the computer because I never knew when the next call would come in.

By the end of my assignment, the call frequency for the California wildfires was finally slowing down. Everyone who still had a house was back home. Those without a house had found temporary housing and were now looking for long-term housing.

Floods

A while later, another call went out nationally, including the DOVES.  This time it was for severe flooding in Louisiana and Texas.  Again, I offered to answer phones.

This time, the virtual operation had expanded.  My first “virtual deployment” was for a regional call center.  This time was for the national call center.  Not only was I taking calls from both Texas and Louisiana but a few calls were coming in from other areas of the country.  If someone has, say a house fire in Chicago, their call might be routed to the national call center.  I had a database containing the contact information for the DAT (Disaster Action Team) for every region in the country.  If I called the appropriate DAT and didn’t get an immediate answer, I left a voice mail message explaining the need and telling them that I was escalating the call.  I had a defined escalation procedure to keep calling higher and higher levels of authority until someone answered.  Almost every DAT answered immediately and took down the contact information for the client. I rarely had to go up more than one level higher.

Once again, I learned firsthand how severely these clients had been affected by the floods.  This time, since I was handling calls at the national level, I was getting far more calls per hour.  If fact, new calls frequently came in just as I completed the previous call.  We had a status board.  When I checked, I was sometimes the only operator taking calls for the entire country!  Fortunately, we had our own automatic escalation system in place.  If for any reason I didn’t immediately answer an incoming call, the system would forward the call to the backup team in Washington, DC.

These calls took an emotional toll on me.  Sometimes I would be emotionally drained after taking just one difficult call.  I was always exhausted after taking a long series of calls without a moment’s break

Fail

The following year, there was major flooding in Louisiana again. Red Cross sent out a request nationally looking for volunteers. I happened to be only a few states away and was in the process of moving further west.

While driving, I received a phone call asking if I could deploy. I said yes and turned south toward Louisiana as soon as I reached the next Interstate highway.

My disaster coordinator was busy with a different project. So, he forwarded my status to his counterpart from another Red Cross chapter. She had never worked with a DOVE before. She asked where I would be staying. I said that would depend on where I was to be deployed. She said that would depend on where I was staying. This did not bode well.
That evening, I checked into a campground. I told them that I did not know how long I would be staying at their campground. They said that would be no problem as long as I gave them one day’s notice.

I called every campground in the affected area in Louisiana. Every one of them was located near the river and was closed due to the flooding.
Many of the roads leading to the flooded cities were closed. I was unable to determine exactly how I would drive there.

After 48 hours, I still had not found any place to park my RV for deployment nor was I sure what roads were still open. My temporary disaster coordinator was unwilling to provide any help.

At this point, I gave up and resumed heading west.

Hurricane Harvey

Through years of working in computer software development, I have learned how to empathize with extreme introverts who hide their emotions well.  My experiences with the Call Center convinced me that those empathy skills are the exact opposite of what I needed for my Red Cross work.  I have difficulty erecting a psychological barrier between my needs and the needs of the client.

I didn’t want to stop volunteering for the Red Cross but I did want to stop receiving emergency calls for help.  During a major disaster, the Red Cross response can be divided into three major categories: Client Services, External Services, and Staff Services.

Most of the staff in a Red Cross Disaster Response Operation (DRO) are in Client Services.  They provide assistance directly to the victims of the disaster, including providing food, shelter and emergency supplies.  These people work directly with the survivors of the disaster.  This is the area that I discovered is too hard for me, emotionally.

A smaller group works with External Services.  These people provide an interface between Red Cross and other organizations involved in the disaster relief, such as FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and elected government officials.  They meet with staff from other agencies that are also providing food and shelter.  This work is essential to meeting the needs of the survivors but isn’t exactly suited to me, either.

The third branch during a DRO (Disaster Relief Operation) is Staff Services.  Here, the “client” isn’t a disaster survivor but rather another Red Cross staff member.  For example, Disaster Services Technology (DST) is responsible for maintaining the electronic equipment, like phones, radios, computers, and printers.  Now, this is a specialty ideally suited for a technical guy like me.  There’s plenty of need and plenty of work to be done but rarely does anything rise to the level of a crisis.

I focused all of my efforts on improving my readiness for working on DST assignments.  I took additional on-line courses and drove to locations where I could participate in HOT (Hands On Training) workshops.

For more than a decade there had been no major hurricanes hitting anywhere in mainland United States.  In August of 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Texas as a Category 4 storm.  Portions of the Lone Star state were inundated with up to 52 inches of rain with resulting flooding.  Over 42,000 people were evacuated to Red Cross shelters.

I didn’t want to deploy to Texas.  I was concerned that the power outages would mean sweltering summer weather in Texas with no air conditioning.  Also, it was too far to drive to Houston in time.  So, I watched the hurricane news from the sidelines.

Hurricane Irma (DR 144-18 )

The situation in Houston was still bad when Hurricane Irma hit Florida.  Now, it was clear that the Red Cross was overloaded.  They needed all the volunteers that they could find.

The idea of deploying to Florida was scary to me.  The summer in Florida is generally hot and humid.  Being without electricity meant living without air conditioning.  Not an enticing thought.  Plus, the Red Cross expects its volunteers to work 12-hour days for a minimum of 14 days.  It’s been years since I last worked one whole day.  Could I handle the long hours and hot days?

After considerable thought, I decided to update my on-line status saying that I was available.

Early the next morning, I got a terse email request:  “Can you deploy today?”  I replied with the even more terse response: “Yes”.

The Red Cross likes to pre-position its worker at the disaster site before the disaster hits whenever that is possible.  They wanted me on the ground as soon as possible to prepare for the hurricane before it hit.

I grabbed my “Go” bag.  The Red Cross recommends that everyone keep a “Go” bag packed at all times in case they need to evacuate in a hurry.  (Some people call them “bug out” bags.)  Do you have one?  In my “Go” bag, I keep a crank-operated weather radio, two flashlights, and a Swiss-army knife. It also has personal items like pills, toothbrush and other toiletries, a first-aid kit, and a complete set of USB chargers.  I threw a seven-day supply of clothes into another bag.

I also always maintain my “hurry up and wait” bag, in case I have to make an unexpected trip somewhere that I might be delayed a long time, like a doctor’s office or an emergency room. It has things like a headset and iPod player to keep me entertained.  It also has a portable USB charger that I always keep charged.

I packed my InReach in case all the cell phone towers were down where I would be deployed.

Within 30 minutes, I had combined these bags into a suitcase plus a carry on. I was now fully packed and ready to leave for the airport.

I put out a 48-hour supply of food and water for Pooka, my rabbit.  I called my son and arranged for him to come fetch Pooka as soon as he could.  I had already told the campground that I might be checking out on short notice.

I relaxed and waited for a call.  And, I waited and waited.  At noon, I made lunch and waited.  At supper time, I made another meal.

I finally got a phone call from the regional Red Cross office.   My contact holds the impressive title of “Disaster Workforce Engagement Manager.”  He was exasperated by the slow response from National Headquarters.  My deployment orders weren’t received before the airports started closing in anticipation of the storm.   My new orders were to deploy as soon as the airports re-opened after the storm.

I took the extra time to bring Pooka to my son’s office so that he wouldn’t have to drive to me. Everyone in his office loved getting a chance to pat Pooka before my son brought him home with him.  My son set up a playpen in his cellar.  Later, my son told me what happened when his two cats met Pooka.  Pooka thumped!  He does this by raising one of his hind feet and stomping hard.  It’s amazingly loud for such a small bunny. Both cats jumped into the air.  Pooka thumped again.  Both cars jumped again.  Although Pooka has sharp teeth and sharp claws, he never attacks.  Looks like the cats won’t try to eat him.  I guess we don’t have to worry about them interacting!

When deployed, each volunteer is issued a “Mission Card”.  This is essentially a pre-paid MasterCard.  Since I now had plenty of time, I drove to the local Red Cross office to pick up a Mission Card.  On my way, I got a call asking if I was willing to be interviewed for TV.  They were highlighting local individuals who are deploying to the hurricane relief efforts.  I said that would be fine.  When I arrived, there was a Channel 12 News truck parked in the lot waiting for me.  We picked a spot with a nice background and they set up their equipment.  The actual interview took about 20 minutes.

After that, I dropped by my storage unit to pick up some items that might be useful during my deployment, such as a ultrathin silk sleeping bag to survive hot nights.  On my way home, I stopped for dinner, possibly my last relaxing dinner for a while.  As I was finishing supper, I noticed that the time was approaching when the evening news would come on.  There was no one seated at the bar; so, I asked the waitress if someone could change the overhead TV to channel 12 so that I could watch myself on TV.  She made sure that closed captioning was on, since the sound was muted.  She and I and another waitress watched my interview on the TV.  It was brief but it was fun to listen to.  A few minutes of my interview survived the cutting room floor, including a line I use frequently:  “When I had a career, I had no time so I gave money.  Now that I’m retired, I have no money, so I give my time.”

When the storm finally cleared Florida, I took a shuttle to the Providence, RI, airport.  Fortunately, there were no lines at the airport.  Check-in was so deserted that I had to ask if they were open.  Next, was the security line.  There was only one person in line.  I breezed through.  I was concerned that my flight could be late or cancelled.  The storm had recently cleared Florida but it was now headed directly for Atlanta where I had to change planes.  Nonetheless, my flight departed on-time.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the center seat in my aisle was empty.  I love having the extra space!  As it turned out, the storm was small enough when it reached Atlanta that we landed right on time.  I was even more surprised when the center seat was empty for my next flight as well.  In all my years of travel, I have never had an empty seat beside me for two flights in a row.  I guess there aren’t too many people heading toward a storm-ravaged area!

Tallahassee

When I arrived at the Tallahassee airport in Florida, I called my local contact.  He drove out to the airport to pick me up.  I was soon put to work setting up a Staff Shelter in a local church.  The Red Cross loves abbreviations.  One activity is MC/SH (Mass Care / Sheltering) which means running a shelter.  That’s one of the activities for which most Red Cross workers have received training.  Later in the evening, other Red Cross volunteers arrived at the Staff Shelter.  All of them were driving ERVs (Emergency Response Vehicles) toward Orlando.  They were from all over the country.  The ones coming the farthest had flown from Hawaii to Washington state, then driven an ERV across the entire country.  By 10pm, we had about 40 cots assembled.  We separated one large room into a men’s dorm and a women’s dorm using a portable room divider.  As it turned out, that was the only night that I had to survive without air conditioning.

For breakfast, someone brought in coffee and donuts. I rode in one of the ERVs to the regional Red Cross headquarters.  Since I’ve also been qualified as an ERV driver, I was assigned to pick up food at the local Salvation Army headquarters and deliver them to a client shelter in an ERV.  I was worried that I’d have difficulty finding the shelter.  My concern evaporated when I saw an enormous sign, about 10 feet high and 20 feet wide, which said simply: “SHELTER”.

In the afternoon, an ice cream vendor truck arrived at Red Cross Tallahassee headquarters.  Someone announced that there was free ice cream for everyone.  The building emptied faster than if you’d yelled “fire”!  I selected an ice cream sandwich.  Apparently, it’s common for someone to Google for snack vendors in an area in distress and anonymously send money.  They designate their favorite disaster responder:  Red Cross, police, National Guard, etc., and the local vendor delivers the goodies.  People everywhere want to help in some way.

Later in the day, I was sent to pick up a rental truck.  That’s a different specialty at the Red Cross: LOG/TRA (Logistics / Transportation). For many people, driving the box truck would be intimidating.  At 16’ long and 11’ tall, it was tiny compared to my 36’ long and 13’ tall RV.  Once I arrived back at the local Red Cross headquarters, we loaded two skids with cases full of equipment and loaded them onto the truck.  I had been told that I would be driving the truck to Jacksonville in the morning.  Then, suddenly, orders changed.  I was now to drive that night.  I hate driving at night!  It took me 5 hours.  I arrived long after dark.  I called and was assigned to a hotel room.  I parked the truck in the back of the hotel.

An ERV   

Jacksonville

In the morning, I drove the truck to one of the branches of the Celebration Church in Jacksonville.  They had offered several rooms in their huge building to serve as the Operational Headquarters of District 5 of the DRO (Disaster Response Operation).  Together with a facilities representative for the Red Cross and several members of the facilities staff at the church, we selected rooms in the church building for our offices, staff dorms, and a kitchen.  They also provided me with a key to the building.

I began designing a computer network.  The equipment that I had brought with me in the truck from Tallahassee included dozens of computers and cell phones.  It included two satellite dishes.  Each satellite dish was capable of high-speed, bi-directional Internet connectivity but they must be mounted outdoors.  The windows in the building are sealed and do not open.  There was no way to run a cable indoors.  These huge, expensive dishes were useless to me.

My equipment also included two cell phone hotspots.  Each could provide Internet access using Verizon and/or AT&T phone service. Although Hurricane Irma had caused flooding and some power outages in the Jacksonville region, the area around our building had been spared.  We had both electrical power and cell phone coverage.  Each of my two hotspots had four Ethernet ports.   The problem is that I had 18 computers and two printers that I needed to connect with only 8 ports.

What I needed to do was construct a wired network or a WiFi network.  I needed either a WAP (Wireless Access Point) or a Router.  Neither was supplied in what I received.  Someone had forgotten to include them in my shipment of supplies.  I had thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and no way to use them.  And, the headquarters staff would arrive tomorrow!

Also missing from the shipment were extension cords and power strips.  A box with 30 power strips had been sent from the Red Cross National Warehouse in Austin, Texas.  Unfortunately, it was claimed by the Tallahassee office and was not forwarded here.  I sent an urgent order to headquarters for more computers, power strips and other specific supplies that I still needed.  They promised overnight delivery by FexEx.  Now, I had to find a way to make do with the equipment that I had on hand.

I consulted with the IT staff from the church.  They had provided a “guest” account on their WiFi network.  But, it was a public access network with no password.  That wouldn’t provide the security that I needed.  Much of the data that we process in the office contains confidential personal information.  The head of the church’s IT staff agreed to create a private subnet for our use.  I spent most of the rest of the day installing computers in each of the four rooms that the church provided.  I had to move tables close to power outlets, since I had no extension cords or power strips.  Finally, I connected the computers to this new protected WiFi network.  I was ready!

At 6:30 the next morning, I arrived at the church and unlocked the doors.  Headquarters staff started showing up almost immediately.  I spent the rest of the day trying to install a networked printer.  In a perfect world, the computers shipped for our Austin warehouse would be compatible with the printers sent from our Austin warehouse.  No such luck.  As part of my Red Cross training, I was told to strictly follow the DTP (Disaster Technology Procedure).  They emphasized “if you know a better way, don’t do it!”  The reason is that Red Cross is staffed almost entirely by short-term volunteers.  Anything I set up had to be maintained and eventually disassembled by another volunteer.  I dutifully followed the DTP.  It didn’t work.  Another part of the training is to spend no more than 20 minutes trying anything.  If I couldn’t solve a problem in 20 minutes by reading the DTP, I was to call an 800 number at the National Headquarters.  I must have called that number ten times in one day.  Finally, we got the printer working, at least for some of the computers.

That night, we set up a Staff Shelter inside the church.  They set aside four large rooms for us; two for men’s dorms; two for women’s dorms.  We set up several dozen Red Cross cots.  Late that night, I think absolutely everyone in my dorm room was snoring.  Fortunately, I had packed earplugs.

One of the Five Staff Shelters 

One shortage soon became obvious.  There was only one shower in the entire building.  They posted a sign-up sheet divided into 15-minute intervals.  That still was not enough for 75 Red Cross employees and volunteers.  A short walk down the street there was a YMCA.  The YMCA quickly arranged for free guest passes for anyone with a Red Cross photo ID.  In addition to getting access to their showers, we could also use the pool, the fitness room, the whirlpool and the sauna.  People everyone want to help out the disaster relief efforts!

There were fewer crises the next day.  Most everyone who needed a computer had one.  The additional computers and power strips that I ordered had been promised by noon.  No one could find them.  I called National Headquarters.  They assured me that the boxes had shipped.  They blamed FedEx.  I continued to struggle with the equipment that I had.  I was promised more computers “any time now”.

The next day, I worked nonstop to address the most urgent requests.  I continued trying to locate my missing computers and power strips.  Now, I was getting all possible variations of answers:  “They were shipped”, “I never received an order request”, “I received the request form and forwarded it to National”, “We never received the shipment”, etc.

By the sixth day, when I got up, I noticed a FedEx truck outside.  My shipment!  Finally, nearly a week after I had starting setting up the network.  Now, at last, I had more equipment in my inventory than requests for them.  In total, I now had 36 laptop computers, 100 smart phones, 4 printers, and miscellaneous other equipment.  Everyone finally had everything that they needed in order to get their jobs done!

Our Staff Services Desk 

The next week was a blur.   Wake up every day at 6:30am.  Eat breakfast and walk to work.  (The Staff Shelter, the kitchen and the District Operation offices were all in the same building.)  Work until 10pm and walk back to the Staff Shelter.  I punctuated the 15-hour work day with lots of breaks.

Every day brought new issues.  Some were humorously simple.  For example,

Worker:  “Could you come help me.  My computer stopped working.”
Me, after a quick check:  “Your computer isn’t plugged in.”
Worker, pointing at a plug:  “Yes, it is!”
Me, holding a different plug: “No, it isn’t.”

Two of the problems were too complex for me to resolve.  I had to submit an incident report to the Red Cross IT Desk in Washington, D.C.

One problem involved a police report.  Apparently, the supervisor at one of the client shelters turned over the rental car keys and a cell phone to a local volunteer.  That volunteer hasn’t been seen since.  Eventually, our transportation department was able to find the car abandoned in a parking lot.  Our IT department remotely disabled the phone.  We never found it.

All of the other problems fell somewhere between these extremes.  They keep me occupied but were not overwhelming, like it had been during the previous week.

The third week was even less hectic.  Most of the technical problems had already been solved.  Because Northern Florida had not suffered as much damage as areas further south, we started shutting down client shelters, reduced the number of feeding locations and moved the staff into hotel rooms.  Now more staff were leaving every day than new staff were arriving.  Rather than handing out cell phones, I was collected them and putting them back into inventory.  By the end of that week, we had closed all seven client shelters, both staff shelters and both warehouses.  The initial phases of the DRO (Disaster Recovery Operation) were over.  Now, the emphasis would be switching to client casework that could last for months.  My replacement arrived.  After a few hours acquainting him with the network that I had set up, I was “out-processed” and I turned in my Red Cross phone.  The next day, my flight home was uneventful.

What was truly impressive about this adventure was that it worked as well as it did.  Nearly all of the staff were volunteers.  Hardly anyone had worked with anyone else on the staff before.  Most, like me, had never been on a deployment before but everyone did their jobs excellently.  Shipments were late, yet we made do with what we had.  Facilities were lacking but everyone pitched in to help out.  Somehow client needs were meet.  It just worked!  For me, it was quite the adventure.

One of our warehouses 

Hurricane Maria (DR 412-18)

Meanwhile, the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico had been heavily damaged by the same Hurricane Irma.  Then, Hurricane Maria struck as an extremely powerful Category 5 hurricane with winds in excess of 150 mph.  The islands suffered catastrophic damage.  What remained of the electrical infrastructure after Irma was totally destroyed by Maria.  Formerly, St. John’s, one of the U. S. Virgin Islands, had several beaches that had been voted as among the top beaches in the world.  Now these beaches were destroyed.

Many of the Red Cross staff were still deployed in Texas and Florida when Maria struck USVI. The entire Red Cross disaster response system was completely overloaded.

When Hurricane Maria came through St. Thomas Island, it literally ripped the roof off of the building housing the staff shelter.  It was impossible to move the staff to a hotel because all of the hotels were now closed.  They quickly erected a tent city for the staff.  Zika now became a major concern. Conditions for the relief workers was challenging.  No electricity meant no air conditioning.  It also meant that there were no street lights and no traffic signals.  Most of the roads were impassable due to the fallen branches and the fallen electric lines.  I’m told the trees were completely bare with nothing green remaining.  Deep water flooded the streets.

Calls for volunteers went out almost daily across the entire country.  But, they came with a dire warning that this was considered hazardous conditions.  Only staff with no health limitations could apply since there was no emergency health care available anywhere on the islands.

I wanted to help but the warnings were too scary!  I delayed my travels waiting to see what would happen.

Gradually, the requests became less threatening.  For example, they stopped requiring that we bring mosquito netting but continued to warn about the prevalence of Zika.  The list of items required was still quite long.

Finally, I received a personal request to deploy to the U. S. Virgin Islands.  I had to go through a rigorous vetting process to ensure that I would be able to handle the extreme conditions. This included phone interviews with health services, etc.  I had to join a conference call to learn about the conditions on the islands.  It seems that this would be a much more challenging assignment.

Once again, I brought Pooka to my son’s office.  The staff was once again happy to pat him.  I drained the water out of my RV, added RV anti-freeze and moved the RV into storage.  I drove my truck to a hotel near the airport, spent one night at the hotel then took their shuttle to the airport.

When I finally arrived on St. Thomas, I was shocked to see the reality of my assignment.  I had expected to see very primitive conditions with limited food and water.  That was not the case.

After the staff had been forced to live in tents, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) stepped in.  They contracted with one of the cruise lines for one of their ships.  The cruise line was happy to oblige since they had no paying tourists and would otherwise be sitting idle with a full staff but no passengers.

It turns out much of the info being disseminated about USVI was outdated. All relief staff in USVI was now housed on FEMA ships, two to a stateroom.  In addition to the Red Cross workers, there were staff from FEMA and SBA (Small Business Administration), volunteers from church groups, Americore, and many other agencies.  There were also linemen from all over the country who were there to replace the telephone poles and wires.

There are no client shelters and no staff shelters.   Food, cabin stewards and free laundry are provided on board.  I spoke with the local Red Cross leaders.  They stated that they avoided updating the hazard status since they never know if the earlier conditions might return.

Our Red Cross Headquarters has a generator (and A/C) from 6am to 6pm.  The ship has generator power 24/7.  Outdoors is hot!

I had been issued a Mission Card prior to leaving but it was nowhere to be found. (I later discovered it when I returned home.  It was lying on my coach waiting to be packed.)  Fortunately, I didn’t need it.  FEMA provided all of our food plus I had been told to bring $500 in cash with me, since the ATM machines are not working.

I’ve driven “starboard drive” cars in England.  You drive on the left and the steering wheel is on the right, which many Americans impolitely call the “wrong” side.  But, here on the USVI, they have “gutter driving”.  That is, they drive on the left like they do in the nearby British Virgin Islands.  But, they drive American-made cars, which have the steering wheel on the left.  As a result, you’re driving from the side of the car that is closest to the gutter.  Judging your distance from oncoming traffic is much harder.  Most of the cars on the island have dents and/or broken windows.  It’s not at all clear to me whether they have had accidents due to the gutter driving or whether they were damaged in the hurricanes.  Whatever the reason for the poor condition of the cars, it was scary learning to driving here.  Several of the other Red Cross workers had fender-bender accidents while I was there.

My first full workday was Saturday.  Instead of our usual duties, the entire staff went out among the local population installing fire alarms.  As part of their nationwide “Sound the Alarm” program, Red Cross workers provide free smoke alarms.  This campaign has already saved many lives across the country.

For me, this meant being invited into people’s private homes.  Seeing their homes was quite a shock to me. These people had obviously been living in poverty conditions prior to the arrival of the storms.  Now, with no electricity, the homes were dark and foreboding.  On my team, I was the “installer”.  I selected appropriate places for smoke alarms and “installed” them.  Since Red Cross doesn’t want its volunteers drilling holes in unknown locations, all of our smoke alarms have been converted to use “sticky tape”.  I just had to place the alarms at the optimal height and press them against the wall.  The rest of our team provided educational training on fire safety to the residents.

The next day being Sunday, everything stopped.  It’s impossible to conduct any business on Sunday in St. Thomas, since everything is closed.  So, Red Cross executives had decided that Sunday would be our one day off per week.  I took the time to relax and explore.

On Monday, my normal duties with DST (Disaster Services Technology) began.  I worked from 7am until 6pm everyday (except Sundays).  Since the computer network had already been setup by previous Red Cross volunteers, my job quickly became very routine.  When new staff were “in processed” (i.e. arrived), I issued cell phones and/or computers to them.  When staff was “out processed” (i.e. departed for home), I collected their cell phones and/or computers.  Before reissuing the equipment, I backed up all files and then deleted them and reset the devices.

Since these duties didn’t require us to be busy every second of the day, we spent time trying to reconcile our inventory database with the actual equipment.  Earlier in the crisis, the DST team was so overworked that many errors had accumulated.  Eventually, we got the database accurately updated.  In most cases, we found the equipment that our database said we should have.  In some cases, we determined that the equipment had been moved to Puerto Rico or some other Red Cross operation without updating our database.  In a few cases, we tracked down equipment that staff had taken home with them without permission.

One day our generator at the office died. (I think it got some dirt in its diesel supply.)  I had to quickly setup one of the conference rooms on the ship with power strips and WiFi.  Then take it all back down again.  Thankfully, the generator started up again the next morning.

One week of three completed. I saw a working traffic light today!  Progress!

For Thanksgiving, they gave the whole staff an extra day off.  They booked an entire restaurant and served a full turkey and stuffing lunch to all 53 Red Cross workers.

The food on the ship is reasonable but not great.  There’s always plenty of it with a wide selection.   The ship is run by FEMA so it’s much like a military base with a military-style cafeteria.

It’s impossible not to get to know each other here.    We work together 11 hours per day, eat meals together and bunk two to a room.  They’re all great people.  They all dropped what they were doing to fly here to help. They say “This is the hardest job you’ll ever love!”

Sunday was my fourth and final day off. Several of us took a ferry to the neighboring island of St John’s.  Much of the island is a U. S. National Park.  This is a National Park that I otherwise would have been very unlikely to ever see.  The park staff were busy repairing the damage to the beaches.  I stopped at one of the restored beaches for a pleasant swim in the ocean.

The following Friday, I flew home. The island is very slowly recovering.   When I left slightly fewer than half the residents on St. Thomas had electricity two months after the storms.  How would you fare if you had no electricity for two months with no guarantee of when you would get electricity?  The other islands have it even worse.   About 1/3 had electricity when I left.

Some cruise ships full of tourists arrive every day.   Stores are fully stocked.   Gas stations are open.   Street lights in the city are coming on.   Still dark outside the city.   Red Cross is “transitioning to recovering”.  Most of the aid workers, including Red Cross workers, are heading home. The linesmen will be here for a long time.

When I got home, my son met me at the hotel and brought Pooka, my rabbit.  My son, his wife and I went out to a restaurant for brunch.  For a split second, I was shocked to see my son driving on the wrong side of the road.  Just as quickly, I realized that he was on the correct side of the road.  I’m back on the mainland!

I reversed the process that I had followed when leaving.  I moved my RV back to a camp site, drained the anti-freeze, and added water.  Pooka and I are very glad to be home!

House Fires

Within the Disaster Operations staff and volunteers at Red Cross, we talk about “Blue Sky” versus “Grey Sky”.

Grey Sky is when we’re responding to a large disaster, like a flood or a hurricane.  Blue Sky is when we are preparing for the next disaster by taking classes and running simulations.

Of course, there’s never such a thing as a day without a disaster.  There’s always a calamity somewhere for somebody.  The most common Red Cross response is to a house fire.  On any given day, Red Cross workers respond to dozens of families displaced due to a house fire, somewhere in the country, often in the middle of the night.

My nomad life style makes it nearly impossible for me to directly respond to a house fire event.  I move around too often.  But, I can still help out virtually.

My “home” chapter is Rhode Island, even though I no longer live there.  From my RV, I can access CAS (Client Assistance System), the database of disaster events and client cases recorded by Red Cross workers.  I work in a supervisory role.  I don’t usually interact directly with clients.  Instead, I work with the database itself.  To minimize human error, the Red Cross requires three supervisor reviews for each client case.  One review is purely fiscal.  Did we provide the approved cash assistance?  One review is preliminary.  Was all of the required data entered into the database?  And, one review is final.  Did we provide all of the indicated assistance?  Mostly, I work with the final review since it is easy to provide remotely.

It’s heart breaking to me to read the “narrative”, the story of what happened to a particular client at a particular event.  These families are typically living paycheck to paycheck.  When any unexpected expense occurs, such as a house file, they have absolutely no reserves to tide them though the event.  This is where Red Cross comes in to assist them. It’s a world I have been fortunate enough never to have known personally.  Most of the cases that I review start out very dire.  “Client has nowhere to live.”  Sometimes, their situation gets worse over time.  “Client reports that he has been living in this car.”  But, almost always the story ends on a high note.  “All emergency needs have been met.”  On occasion, the client needs go beyond what the Red Cross can provide.  In these cases, the story usually ends by saying that the client was successful in contacting a particular social service agency or other aid society. If the stories didn’t end well most of the time, I don’t think I could handle this job.

If nothing else, I know that I’m part of the solution.  I’m facilitating Red Cross help when and where it is most needed.  For me, that helps to satisfy the “Give” portion of my pursuit of happiness.

Blizzard (DR  538-2018)

In March of 2018, the states in the northeast were hit by a series of major blizzards.  I received an email asking me personally if I could help out with a “Virtual Deployment”.    I responded that, yes, I was available.

Within half an hour of that initial request, I received a formal “Disaster Relief Operation Assignment Record”.  I had been assigned to DR 538-2018 as a Recovery Service Associate.   My GAP code was REC/GEN/SA.   This meant that I would be doing remote client case work in Massachusetts by phone from here in Texas.

Last summer, I had been told that I needed cataract surgery in both eyes.  My heavy schedule made it impossible for me to avoid driving for an entire month.  My deployments to both Florida and St. Thomas extended my busy schedule.  How was it that I found any spare time back when I had a career?

I was able to arrive my travels so that I could stay in Texas for March and April.  This gave me the time to get the cataract surgery completed and have time for any required follow up appointments.  I was looking forward to two months with very little driving, restrictions against too much physical activity and not much to do besides reading and working on writing this book.

The timing was perfect for accepting this Red Cross assignment.  I was already restricted to stay in my RV due to my recent eye surgery.

Down here in warm Texas, it’s easy to ignore how many people’s lives are adversely affected by winter storms.  I’m hiding indoors because it’s well over 80 degrees outdoors here today.

I immediately began receiving multiple announcements from the DRO (Disaster Relief Operation).  This includes receiving the daily SITREP (situation report).  My first such report said that over 2,000 homes were damaged in the recent series of storms.  Of those, 15 were destroyed beyond repair.

This DRO had already provided 587 overnight shelter accommodations and served almost 4,000 meals.  All of the shelters have now been closed but are on standby since another storm is expected soon.

The DRO had now entered the “recovery phase”.  Nearly all of the relief workers were going back home.

This is a phase that I had never participated in before.  I was always one of the workers who was going home.  This was a new experience for me.

As I’m discovering, this Red Cross Virtual Deployment is much easier for me personally than my previous ones.

When I was doing support for the DOCC (Disaster Operations Call Center), I was getting calls from people recently displaced by a disaster. They had just lost their homes, their money, their cars, etc.  The calls came in without any advance warning.  The victims were always overwhelmed and stressed out. I was nervous every time the phone rang.

On my current assignment, I initiate the calls.  I can read the client’s case history before I make the call.  I use caller ID blocking to prevent them from calling me back.  It’s been several days since the storms.  The client is either back in their home or has found someone to live with temporarily.  They are invariably calm and appreciative.  They thank me repeatedly for all the help that Red Cross has given them. Even if they still have issues, like no permanent address, they are starting to accept their situation and are initiating their recovery plans.

So much better from my point of view! This virtual deployment for Massachusetts storms is teaching me a lot about casework.

They had to release several of the virtual case workers because they are outside the Northeast Division and no one could get them access to the Client Assistance System (CAS).  Most of the local volunteers are exhausted and are taking a break in case the next storm hits hard.  Those of us from Connecticut and Rhode Island were already in the Northeast Region and had access to the Massachusetts client cases.  We enabled the casework process to keep functioning.

This Level 3 operation had all the chaos commonly found on nationwide (Level 5) disaster operations.  I ran into countless problems: missing data, wrong case numbers, bad addresses, errors in narrative, clients with issues that pre-date the storms.  Etc, etc, etc.

If nothing else, they are training me well for when I get back to the Rhode Island cases!

Despite the usual chaos in disaster situations, the recovery operation went smoothly and client needs were gradually met.  We went from over 200 open cases to fewer than a dozen.

I’m sure that, some day, I’ll be a called for yet another disaster relief effort.  Hopefully, some day I will be able stay in my RV during a DRO!

By Ken Wadland
SKP 122046
DSHR #1013711

This article is an excerpt from the book “Finding the Peanut Butter”.