Charlie's Rants & Raves

Well, I went to the Astrodome today to volunteer in assisting any way I could those that were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. As most everyone knows, these people were evacuated from the Superdome and transferred to the Astrodome.

Here's how my day went.

I arrived a bit before 6:00 AM. To my surprise, there were several volunteers already waiting. Well, we had to sign up and get our colored bracelet. There were different ones, but the main thing is that the pink bracelets were for evacuees. Mine was beige. I saw others that were yellow and white. Later in the day, so many volunteers arrived, that the Red Cross ran out of the bracelets to hand out. The wrote "V" in marker on volunteers hands. There were numerous people with Shell (oil) shirts. Lots of younger folk, my age, probably younger. You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos in this blog entry. They were taken from my camera phone. Since I haven't been able to pay off my cell phone bill, I took a picture of the picture on my phone using my digital camera.
I got called to my first assignment, which was to serve breakfast. Here's a photo of our arrival inside the Astrodome.
I didn't really feel like serving breakfast because I thought it would be similar to the lunch lines in school. The lunch lady gave you your food. I didn't want to deal with people saying that I didn't give them enough. Thankfully, all we had to do was set up the tables with the food items. Those that woke up were able to get the food themselves. Several of us were sent throughout the Astrodome to hand out breakfast to those that couldn't make it to the breakfast area (the breakfast area was in the concourse section on the 4th floor).

After breakfast was done, we were given the task of walking the Astrodome floor and being courteous to the people, see if they needed anything, and things of that nature. I got teamed up with a guy named Chris from Rosenberg, TX (I would run into him later in the day as well). We walked, up and down the floor, but most people were still sleeping. It didn't seem like I was doing anything to be helpful, just courteous to those that were awake. It was amazing to see all of these people of all types, old, young, really young, several white people, a couple hispanics, but the majority black. That didn't matter to me though. They were situated in these cramped, yet air conditioned areas. Cot right next to cot. There were breaks in the cots so they could get up and walk around. It was nice to see some of the kids, you know, being kids. Some were playing Yugi-Oh, another tied a string to a car to drag it around. The adults, well, some were pretty despondent, some angry, but most just thankful.

I talked with one of the evacuees who was ready to start over again. He was kind of upset that people were being lazy and still sleeping (it was around 8:15AM). He said, if people want to succeed, that they'll have to get up and go do something. I agreed and we talked for a few minutes. I then left and had to pee really bad. The bathroom kind of stunk. What do you expect a bathroom to smell like. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary though (other than seeing people brush their teeth in there). It was surprising how warm it was in the morning on the Astrodome floor. Luckily, the A/C kicked in later and made it much more tolerable. I saw the ever-growing message board, you know people searching for people. This was remniscent of the message boards that popped up after 9-11 and the Dec. 26 tsunami.

Here are some of the pictures I took while walking the Astrodome floor.

See, cot right next to cot. After my stint on the Astrodome floor, I went back to the volunteer staging area. My next assignment was to move something. Didn't know at the time what it was...turned out to be copy machines for the logistical team (red cross, sbc, etc). Well, while waiting for the truck driver to show back up, I got a picture of a couple of ambulances that went down the ramp in the Astrodome close to the floor of the arena. They loaded a couple people up. One lady was getting checked on the floor close to the ambulances as well. The medical triage center was in the same area.

Well, the copy machine guy got there and we had to move 3 copy machines to the 5th floor in the Astrodome. We got to go within the bowels of the Astrodome. We made it to the elevator which was heavily used. There was a sewage backup in the area so that stunk pretty bad. Well, we finally made it on the elevator and got the copy machines to the 5th floor. Problem was that nobody up there really knew what to do with them. So after a few minutes they decided to place them in several areas on the 5th floor. Here's an image of the Astrodome floor from where I was.

All of the white dots were the cots/blankets that people were in.

Well, once that was done, I think I did the most charitable, hospitable, courteous thing I've ever done. As were were going back down on the elevator, two elderly black women (sisters) got on the elevator. They wanted to go to the second floor. They were carrying garbage bags of items (which may have been the only things that they had left). I and another guy, Ron, decided to help carry their bags. It wasn't light, and I was surprised that these 2 ladies were able to carry the bags with them all around the Astrodome. There was an announcement that people should go to section 262 for something (they thought it was for busses outta Houston and I thought I heard it was for free flights to Denver (courtesy of some airline that I don't remember)). Well we got there and there wasn't anything there. We decided to walk around some more. If you don't know the 'Dome, you get around between levels by going up/down ramps. They wanted to get out of the 'Dome and see if they could call/catch a cab. Well, neither Ron or myself knew our way around the 'Dome. We walked around carrying these ladies belongings for maybe an hour or so. We finally made it outside. They thanked us profusely and even wanted to give us something. Both of us refused saying that the only thing we wanted to do was help. That's enough gratification for us. Well, I got chance to talk with Ron after that. He's from Sugar Land.

We waited around in the docking area in the 'Dome to see if there was anything else to help with. There were 5 Wal-Mart trucks getting ready to unload. With my experience in being a box monkey for a toy store, I figured that I would be able to help. Well, they didn't need me as they sent stockers from all over the place. Ron and I departed our separate ways. I decided to go back on the Astrodome floor and walk around and see if anyone needed any assistance. It was pretty much lunch time at that moment, so I know there was a slight rush to the 4th floor concourse where lunch was being served. Here's a picture before I went up to the concourse

Well, I decided to make my way up to the 4th floor concourse to help out with the distribution of lunch. I ran into a couple of the guys that helped move the copy machines with me. One of them actually went to high school with me. I knew he looked familiar. Greg's his name and he lived right around the corner from the 'Dome. Well, I ended up on the drink line. The drink area consisted of large, deep coolers, filled with ice and canned sodas and bottled water. Well, if you have ever kept your hands (arms up to your shoulders) submerged in ice filled waters, then you'll know how I felt. My hands started burning (frostbite maybe). But I persisted. When there was a lull in the food distribution, I took a box and filled it with cold water/sodas. I walked around the concourse and the stadium seating offering drinks. Here's a picture from the stadium seats.
Did I mention that people slept in three areas, the Astrodome floor, stadium seats, and concourse/hallways? Well, they did. not the best arrangements, but from what I heard, better than from where they came from.

This is where I ran into Chris again as well (the guy I walked the Astrodome floor with much earlier in the day). He was re-assigned to deliver items to the various tables serving food/drinks. I also met another guy named Chris, however, this one was one of the evacuees. He was only 11 but he decided to help out and hand out drinks. I think it was great that he was helping. We goofed off a bit (I'm a big kid myself) to take his mind off things. He was very helpful. I wish that everything turns out alright for him and his family.

I continued to serve drinks even as my hands became numb. People were asking mainly for Coke, which we ran out of quickly. The often settled for orange or strawberry Fanta. Although I was able to dig real deep into the cooler (that's why I came home wet up to my shoulders) and occasionally find a Coke. I got a bit hungry and had one of the hand out ham sandwiches. It was actually really good. There were plenty of them, so no one was not getting served. There was actually a lot of items we put on the table (bagles, donut holes, twinkies, zingers, croissants, cinnamon rolls, all kind of stuff). Some people actually brought some of the food back that their kids may have picked up. Unselfish. It was amazing. Here, they had free reign on any/all of the food that they could get, but returned it feeling that others may need it. I doubt it as more and more trucks of food/drinks arrived. But still, unselfish.

A little boy came up to me later asking if he could have a peanut butter sandwich. Problem was we didn't have any bread. I decided to take one of those good ham sandwiches and take the ham out. I made him the peanut butter sandwich and went off happily. Since there was extra ham, I figured I'd have a double ham sandwich (yummy).

Well, as quickly as I got there (6:00 AM), I had to leave (2:00 PM). My wife had to work today at 5:00 PM. I initially wanted to go volunteer later in the day (you know sleep in on my day off), but decided since she worked at 5, I would go in the earliest I could.

It was amazing to see it all. A lot of the people were courteous, thankful to be alive. They seemed like they were over the frustration of being left there at the Superdome without any assistance. Many thanked me as they came to get drinks, not thank me for the drink, but thank me for being there to help them out. Granted, there were the few (very, very few) that were angry, but overall, seems like everyone is much happier being here than there. The outpouring of Houston area residents was amazing. There was a line to get in to the building to volunteer, which I would imagine to be several hundred if not thousand deep.

To wrap it up, I can look back on this experience and finally know that I have done something worthwhile. I haven't volunteered for anything outside of work before. I felt compelled to do it. Maybe because these people are our neighbors. Maybe I wanted to help the city look good (probably not the case). Maybe I wanted to help those less fortunate. Maybe I wanted to help myself feel better about the situation. Maybe it's a culmination of all of what I said.

Well, that's it. Thanks for reading the blog. I know it was long, but here's a final piece of information. As some of the evacuees were moving about, some were crossing the street from the Astrodome to Reliant Center. A cameraman was crouched, taking video looking up at the people. He caught the guy right in front of me who was carrying a bag of items. I don't think that he was an evacuee since he didn't have the pink bracelet. Well, anyway, as the cameraman was following this guy walking, he smacked his camera right into a concrete pillar. It made a noise that sounded like a crack, but not a whole break. Well, I laughed, as did the guy in front of me.