HOME FROM ALABAMA & MISSISSIPPI AT LAST!!

Jess Biskup and Sande Rippe

We have been in the Deep South. We drove through Birmingham Alabama, Selma, past Tuscaloosa, and had job headquarters in Montgomery. And no time to experience the cities. It was the usual 12-14 hour days, very hot and very humid - everyone wears shorts no matter how chunky we look - it's the only way to survive in that weather.
 
Upon arriving in Montgomery, we were immediately assigned to Mobile, which was not hit as hard as New Orleans, but the same problems were there - no electricity, people in need of shelter and food, gas lines blocks long, and no motel/hotel rooms available because of the evacuees. They didn't have the extensive flooding, but I've never seen so many homes with huge trees splitting them in half. Getting fuel for the ERVs was a major problem; if we don't have fuel, we can't get food to our clients. Fortunately, the Red Cross gets priority in fuel lines during disasters, and police officers were stationed at the gas stations that were open to keep the lines in order and would send us right to the front of the line. There was a strong police presence wherever we went because of looting.  
 
Thank heaven for the Southern Baptists, who did all our cooking. Our kitchens were putting out thousands of meals a day, not only to supply the ERVs, but also for all those people in the community without the ability to cook but able to get to the kitchens.  The ERV's took the food to those people unable to get to the kitchens.
 
Because of the drain on hotel/motel rooms, we never saw a motel room from the time we left Montgomery until we returned to outprocess at the end of our tour of duty. We slept on the floor in whatever church was available. In Mobile, our accommodations were in the Baptish church where our kitchen was located. There was a men's dormitory, women's dormitory, and couples dormitory (which we shared with 3 other couples).  The first night, that floor was really hard; but it didn't seem nearly as hard the next night after a full day on the ERV. Fortunately, we were invited to eat breakfast with the Baptists; unfortunately, our rooms were right next to the kitchen, and the Baptists started preparing breakfast at 5:00 a.m. No need for alarm clocks there! But we did have showers available.  Friends of ours from North Dakota assigned closer to the where the storm hit hard didn't have access to showers for a week, and slept in their ERVs. It was a good thing we got breakfast at the church before we left for the day, because very often that was our only meal. We might catch a quick snack between runs, but mostly we just kept going and were too hot and tired when we came in to do anything besides take a shower and hit the floor.
 
After a week, several of the ERVs were reassigned to Meredian Mississippi. The situation was similar - not the severe devastation but no power - and we were providing meals to 8 counties, out of another Southern Baptist kitchen. And talk about country roads. I don't think there is a road anywhere in Mississippi that goes in a straight line.  We had to have county maps so we could find our way around, and even then, some of the places we served weren't on the maps. Around the curves and up the hills, one lane roads, questionable bridges, but we all just kept going. And had a lot of tales to tell in the evenings when we came in. It wasn't uncommon to put on at least 250 miles, and one long day we drove over 350 miles. We had a lot of territory to cover. 
 
At no time did we feel threatened, but due to reports of shooting and looting, one evening when our kitchen sent a convoy of ERVs out to feed in several neighboring towns, we had 2 police vehicles assigned to each ERV, and we all drove with all lights on and flashing. We looked like a moving Christmas tree, but there were no incidents
 
A hard part of the job was not having access to TV or newspapers. You all probably know a whole lot more about Hurricane Katrina than we do. In Meredian, our church accommodations had a big-screen TV, but we were never in early enough to catch the early news, and by the late news we were all sound asleep. The TV had only 3 channels which did NOT include CNN. 
 
We've never seen so many injuries on the job as we had this time. And one of the ERV drivers from Grand Island got bit by something, his legs started swelling up, got medication but didn't read the "Stay out of the sunshine" warning and developed severe blisters. So by the time we all out-processed, the Red Cross decided the GI drivers better get right home, and we were designated to accompany them. Unfortunately, someone got our flight reservations screwed up, so the Red Cross rented a car for us: and we drove home in 2 days.   
 
And, yes, Jess found a fellow hunter - one of our breakfast cooks in Meredian - so he'll be sending him info on Nebraska hunting opportunities.   
 
It looks like it's going to be a busy fall for the Red Cross.