Invited Inside

Today, a big thing happened. I’d been driving around New Orleans in the afternoon, scoping out any aid assistance locations. I wasn’t finding anything, but I kept driving. I became distracted by destruction. One of the areas I was driving through had obviously been hit by the flooding. The lawns and sidewalks, even some of the streets, were caked with thick mud, baking into hard, faceted bricks. Everything was dirty, mostly covered in dried mud. Water marks 5-8 feet high. Spray paint on buildings, marking if they’d been searched by any number of people: home inspectors, police, dead body finders, animal rescue, drug enforcement agency, whoever. I have no idea what any of their symbols mean, but some have obvious messages scrawled across the walls. Devastated. Very much a Wild West feeling. When you don’t see another car or person for a long time, and all off a sudden you can make out a car driving towards you, through the debris and what not, you start to wonder. Why is there a car headed towards me? Should I run away??

Right now, New Orleans seems to be a city with no laws. One could easily be nailed by a car blowing through an intersection, and not stopping, nay, not even slowing down, because the traffic light is out. At the same time, I must say, I felt really pathetic hitting every red light that was operational.

After driving around, a came across a health clinic. Once insides, I was quickly directed to another person working in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for New Orleans. I headed over there, introduced myself to my contact there, and began asking questions. To keep things short, since I’m exhausted again, they really want to work with me. The data I’ve been gathering is exactly what they’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t been able to.

Tomorrow, bright and early, I’m headed back, to see how we can work off one another.