Hotel in New Orleans
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

I work in Gretna, right across the Mississippi river from New Orelans. It’s morning right now and I wanted to show you one of the buildings I pass in the morning. The curtains are kind of soggy because it’s been raining but some morning’s they are blowing in the breeze, like they’re waving to me as I drive by. There’s lots of debris everywhere! So you really have to be careful because there’s no road crews or anything to clean up, so the freeway has lots of junk on it. The first week I was here, I got used to driving up on the sidewalk to go around fallen trees and abandoned cars and fallen building bricks that were blocking the way.

I’m enjoying the work and met a nice lady yesterday who had a tailoring business. She makes custom wedding dresses and tuxedos and she’s been at the same location for 26 years. She showed me pictures of her fallen ceiling and it was sad to see all the dresses in varying stages of completion. She broke down when she said she made sure she called all the brides she had as customers to let them know to make other arrangements for their dresses. Of course, they all understood. Many of them have fled the city and aren’t even here to get their dresses, but still she seemed heartbroken as making these dresses is her life. Even while we were talking she pointed around the room to the different women in the FEMA line to tell me… “I made her dress, and her dress.. and her dress”.

I hope she left with a little more hope. She seemed like a great candidate for aid and I tried to convince her so. She seemed better when she left.

Humvee
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Here’s a shot of the other cars I drive next to on the way to work. Today is Saturday, October 1, 2005 and I drove across the Mississippi to Gretna where I’m working at the Disaster Center there. I met some really interesting folks today! Including this lovely 82 year old woman who showed me pictures of where she was pinned for two days! She was so sweet, I listened to her tell her stories about her spoiled food and how she had to chip away at the plaster that dried around her phone so she could call for help. Amazing woman! I hope you all are doing well. I’m missing you all but doing much better today myself.

Ok, so my SECOND night already, and I’m headed for luxury. A really – really nice suite in New Orleans. It was far too far to drive to work every day so they found me accomdations much closer to work and LOOK! A BED!.. uh. But. There’s a catch. There’s still no water, so we’re talking Evian sink showers, but I’LL TAKE IT!
The poor clerk looked at me when I arrived like I was crazy. I apparently was and have since vowed to try and remember where the hell I am! I guess the step up from the Gym made me think I was Weezy Jefferson or something. I remember now who and where I am. Still, I’m very sorry I made him go through a drill, I’m sure he had gone through enough.

bed sweet bed
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

“Uh..No sir. There’s no valet. I’m the only one working tonight (we’re talking a big hotel. One person.) Uh, no sir – even ‘if’ we had employees, which we don’t, they wouldn’t be able to get to work because of the curfew. So. We are a staff of 8 who have stayed and we rotate shifts. We don’t change the rooms. If you want fresh linens there’s a closet on the second floor help yourself. There’s no cable, don’t bother with the TV remote. There’s no hot breakfast – don’t ask. There ‘is’ dinner however since the city has no restaurants and there’s no place to eat. So, dinner will be brought to you tomorrow, complimentary by our hotel sales and booking staff. The cooks are gone. There’s no newspaper in the morning, no mail service – no you can’t receive packages here. And, the smell? That’s the garbage. The city has no garbage trucks. And no – you may not park in the hotel garage. It’s been commandeered by the police department it’s now an official city police parking garage. Where do ‘you’ park?? Um. Wherever the hell you want! Who’s gonna ticket you? Who’s gonna tow you!? Did you see all the abandoned cars in the street? on the sidewalks? windows busted out and car doors wide open? “???” Do you think they really care that your freakin-governmental-rental-Camry is in a red zone?”

Uh. Oops. I am in another dimension. My bad. Sorry.

Deserted Freeway
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Driving into New Orleans was an eerie experience. Once you get past the National Guard checkpoint – remember the city is closed and there’s a curfew in effect (I have my Government badget – thank God that gets me through these things) it’s odd to be driving in a major city with no traffic, no people, no lights for the most part and feeling by yourself. Odd!

Me and some of the folks
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

I-Need-A-Cigarette-Fred, Wake-Me-Up-Tomorrow Manny, Me, Crazy-Driver-Tony and Disasterman-Jerry. See! Even my friends out on the road get nicknames!

Superdome Missing Tiles
Originally uploaded by ChristopherSolis.

Driving by on Thursday, September 29, 2005 on my way to my first assignment in Gretna at the Disaster Relief Center. This was just one of many amazing images of how much devastation there was.

Home Sweet Gym? Ok. So the accomdations are not what they said they would be. They were worse. In fact, after the first night I vowed, as did many of my co workers, that we’d sleep in the car. This place was FREEZING. And, the cots side by side with mixed genders, snorers (sorry folks) and bugs was enough – for just one night. But HEY. We’re here to help others right? So to do that, I’ll need a good night sleep. Thank God I got a Camry and not a Corolla! I’ll need the space of that backseat.

Uh huh. Ok, so the first thing I’ve learned about this job already is don’t even make a plan. Or think a plan has been made. I arrived at Gretna the first morning and was immediately reassigned to another center at Belle Chasse. That’s ok, because I was told this one was really busy.. and I wanted to be helpful.

It’s one thing to walk into a situation and know what you think you know. Remember I told some of you about my experiences in Mastering Life’s Energies was that I don’t ‘know’ as much as I think I’d like to think I know. (Maybe you follow my line of thinking or maybe you don’t – I’ll understand). So thinking I know that I’m going to be dealing with difficult stories and peoples lives and the devastation is on one hand, and then on the other is the confrontation of humanity. Face to face.

I’m really not trying to be dramatic. I’m just shocked at my own inability to comprehend the scope of what I take in from the media and images and believe to be true. I wasn’t prepared for how challenging this was to be, but then again I wasn’t really informed. You can’t prepare yourself for a situation like this from bombardment of images and rolling screen scrolls from CNN. And all my surfing on MSNBC didn’t even come close the reality of seeing, just folks in line – on a humid September day. Fanning themselves. Drinking water. Some chatting, some crying – a few even looking a little lost. It was much harder than I anticipated.

Get to Baton Rouge….

This may sound like a simple assignment but.. remember, there are several of us, and unfortunately people in mass, treading into unknowns are not always happy cooperative people. We had our first falling out before we really even got started. Folks late for departure, heading the wrong direction. We ended up inside Arkansas by about 20+minutes. Someone thank goodness had the wherewithall to mention to our self-appointed leader that the Gulf of Mexico is “south” and clearly the directions on the highway signs we’re all reading.. north.

But eventually we managed to get to the Operations Center in Baton Rouge in what was estimated to take 7 hours in just 10.5 hours. We met our operations manager and then were given our assignments. I would be in Gretna, which is just East of New Orleans. East of New Orleans? Aren’t we in Baton Rouge? And isn’t that some distance away? Don’t worry. Get in the rental Camry and get to your sleeping quarters in Carville Louisiana. Just another 50 miles. Blech.

Here I am..

Tuesday, 11:40am Texas Time Houston… Hanging out in Houston on a three hour lay-over waiting for a puddle jumper size plane to go to Texarkana, Arkansas. It’s seems strange to fly into there, but I guess it’s the only place where rental cars were available. From there it will be a six hour drive to Baton Rouge. It may take a little while longer because we’re caravanning (8 of us in separate cars) and we have smokers in our group who said, max two hours before a stop is necessary. In our group we have Jerry, Brad, Manny, Michael, Myself, Jo Jo and another guy I can’t remember his name. I just ate some tex-mex and I’ll propose a game of cards since we have some time to kill, or maybe I’ll go over to the glamourous airport media store and get a book.