Tuesday August 30 - Lost everything?

I honestly have no idea what time I got up that morning - sometime in the 6-7am range. I headed for work in the Baton Rouge office since I had Sara trying to get to the New Orleans office. She called and said she got as far as the St Rose travel center and could go no further thanks to water being above her hood on Airline Hwy. I called our boss and let him know short of a helicopter, we were going to have to wait. I felt really detached from the whole Hurricane scenario. Our cell phones were working occasionally. On Tuesday, I answered phones and talked to customers. Birdie, the big company I mentioned earlier, wanted us to try to send some supplies to hospitals in New Orleans. We agreed as long as we could get there safely. We really had no idea the extent of the damage except what little news we got on the radio or on TV with no cable. I drove by the hotel we had reservations with and learned they had no power still and were not going to honor any reservations that had been made pre-storm. Back to Kevin's house for me, I suppose. I called Chris, my ASM. He was in Lafayette with his family, but rented a truck, packed some clothes, and headed for me. I think his wife still hates me for that. I also got our line haul driver, Mike, to head from his home in Lafayette towards us to work out of Baton Rouge.

Most of the day I continued to field calls from employees and contractors wondering about others or letting us know they were okay. I also had to reassure customers that we weren't out of business and that I was alive and well. One of our larger customers that stored MRI equipment with us called several times. I told him that I had given him a chance to relocate the items on Friday, but that he had chosen to leave them in MSY. I would let him know about his items as soon as we could get to the office. The best part of my day was hearing corporate office whining about how they couldn't use the server. I had given them several chances to get it out of New Orleans, and they had declined. I wanted to scream, "I told you so," but didn't get to.

We got 3 pallets of supplies from Birdie mid-afternoon and sent a BTR courier along with them to a hospital, Ochsner West Jeff. It took him almost 12 hours to go there and back, but he made it fine with only a few stories of heavy wind damage he saw on the West Bank. I think I may have talked to Lisa a couple of times. She was very upset about what she was seeing on the news. People on rooftops, rioting, looting, homes under water, etc etc. I wasn't seeing any of this as I was too busy and too close to the action.

We got a letter from FEMA giving us permission to travel through checkpoints to deliver pharmacy supplies and any other relief items. We also got a letter from Louisiana stating we were part of the disaster recovery team. This was my invitation to get to NOLA. I had one on my dashboard until at least mid-Sept.

Chris showed up that evening and since there was no hotel, he had nowhere to sleep. Since Chris is adaptable as hell, we went to Academy and Wal Mart and bought sleeping bags, blankets, cots, and towels. Chris moved into the BTR ASM's office and one other driver slept in control cage. We had dinner and then I went back to Kevin's house, where his wife was nice enough to accommodate me.

At this point I was tired and scared. It was strange to be the manager of a facility that you don't know if it still existed or not. I also didn't know if all my employees and contractors were alive or dead, and if my house was completely flooded or not.

I saw this picture on the internet, this is maybe 2 blocks from where I lived, and pretty much knew it wasn't boding well for me, I was too busy with work to really worry about my life at this point. I missed Lisa, but I didn't have anyplace to put her at the time. Mostly at this point, I just remember being tired and eager to do my job.

AP PHOTO