As I mentioned before, Patricia and I went back to the Nortel Center on Saturday. Security was a lot tighter this time. Last time I pretty much breezed in just by telling everyone I was there to volunteer with emergency management services. (Though I was told later this maybe only worked because I was white.)
This time I was stopped at the front gate, before I even got to the building, and told I couldn't be let in without an ID badge. I explained that I didn't have a badge because I had to turn it in when I left last time, which the officer had to get on his radio and explain to his sergeant. The officer sent me to the main entrance, with instructions to ask to speak to the sergeant.
When I got to the main entrance, I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not getting in that way. She was pleasant but very firm about it. She said that no one could drive in that way because that was the bus route (?), and told me to go back to the other entrance. I told her that the officer at that entrance had sent me to her, which prompted a flurry of talking back and forth on the radio.
Eventually it was agreed that we (Patricia was there too by then) would go back to the other entrance, where we were indeed waved right through. We pulled around to the building, where we were met by the sergeant and another officer. Yes, they were waiting for us. Again they were pleasant (they chatted about my car) but no nonsense about security. They escorted us in, watched us sign in, walked us over to get our badges, walked us to room 130, and made sure the people in there recognized us and were expecting us. Jeez louise! I'm surprised they didn't watch us all day and escort us to the bathroom too.
The place was almost shut down; they told us that as of Friday night, all but 30 people had been moved to other housing. We were there to do data entry: the first week when people were coming in, they didn't have enough time or computers to enter the forms directly onto the computer. Instead they printed out a bunch of blank forms and had people write them out by hand. So Patricia and I were there to finish typing in the handwritten forms.
This made the day much less stressful than the week before, but also more tedious. There was pretty much no one there but a bunch of FEMA people, who spent most of the day discussing how to fill out their reimbursement forms. That's not intended as a criticism: those guys were going nonstop a week before, and probably had been since they got there. This was probably their first chance to work that practical stuff out.
For most of the day we sat next to one FEMA guy who told us a little about his situation. His real job is with the Dept. of Homeland Security, and he volunteered to help FEMA in the days immediately after the hurricane. He said that when he signed up, the duration of his assignment was "between one week and 120 days"! But he expects to be home by Thanksgiving.
He said that when they finish up at the Nortel Center, his group is going to move to "outreach," which means seeking out people who migrated to NC on their own or were brought here by private organizations, who might not have registered with FEMA yet. He said they heard there were a lot of people in Winston-Salem so that's probably where they'll be sent next. Up here they look for groups of people, but he said that in Louisiana and Mississippi they have teams knocking on doors, looking for evacuees in every community.
Patricia asked him if he thought the criticism of FEMA was justified, which was an excellent question that I didn't have the nerve to ask, and I'm really glad she did. (She also made quite a cutting joke at his expense: early in the day someone asked him what he was doing, and Patricia said "Oh he's FEMA, he's not doing anything!")
He acknowledged that FEMA's bad rap was at least partly justified, though he didn't elaborate on that. Instead he went right into criticism of the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana. Which was actually more than I expected. It must be tough to leave your family on two days notice, for who knows how long, and be working your ass off to help people, all day every day, for weeks, and hear nothing but how badly your organization screwed everything up. Which is not to say that FEMA didn't screw everything up; just that the people on the ground who are doing their best, and have nothing to do with the mismanagement, must be a little defensive about it.
I think it's interesting that so many people seem to have such an emotional investment in deflecting blame away from themselves or whoever they sympathize with. My boss is a hardcore liberal, and can't stand to hear any criticism of Louisiana state or local government. To him the disaster is all the fault of the federal government, and he gets a bit agitated if you suggest otherwise. Personally I think there's plenty of blame to go around. I think the failure was at all levels of government, and I don't see how criticising Bush exonerates the governor, or vice versa.
I have to say, regardless of what the federal agencies did right or wrong, all the people I encountered at the Nortel Center were dedicated and working hard to help people. Most were making personal sacrifices (like the fireman who's far from home and is going to miss his son's entire first season of high school football), but no one seemed to mind. It was a good antidote for cynicism.
Thank you so much for doing this. That's the truly sad and sickening thing about all this, and the war too, the people who are on the front lines are almost to a person just wonderful good hearted folks who only want to help the best way they know how. It's the politicians that have screwed everything up and left the real heroes to take the blame, bear the frustration and anger and even die on the battlefield.
Whenever you are bored and frustrated yourself, think of Joseph Grand in "The Plague." Camus referred to him as the real hero of the story because he showed up every day and quietly went about pretty much the exact business you have been doing. I agree with that assessment. Thank you.