Friday afternoon Brandon and I went down to REDS Team in Garner to help make sure everything was packed, the boats and wave runners were working, etc. We had been put on alert that we would deploy toward the coast Saturday morning to stand by in case any water rescue was needed after Hurrican Charlie blew through.
Well, of course Charlie decides to alter course a little bit, so the call came in about 5:30 while we were there that they wanted us in Kinston that night. The amusing part was that of four people standing there when the word came in, four people grabbed phones and called significant others. The conversations were along the lines of "please get my blue bag from the closet, take this stuff out, put this stuff in. Make sure this stuff is still there. Do we have spare batteries? Oh, we're leaving tonight..."
So, poor Rachel is at work, and now has me calling to ask her to help me pack as we finish getting the gear working in Garner, is worrying about getting the house ready in time because I won't be around to help, and thinking about food, water, etc. etc. I'm firmly convinced the family of emergency workers have much the tougher job.
Brandon spends the whole time trying to talk Chief into taking him. Don't think Chief is ready to deploy with a 10 year-old yet...
However... 3 hours later we were at the station, packed, ready to go. The house was ready, food and water were laid in, DVD's and computers were ready to go.
We spent the night at the National Guard Armory in Kinston, our cots sharing a bay with boats, wave runners, and trucks. Oh, and laptops, DVD players, CD players, etc. These guys know how to take advantage of a dry place and a little electricity if it's available! Only complaint was that we couldn't get all the lights out in the bay, so it was like trying to sleep outside at noon!
Our mission was to be water rescue for the area of North Carolina from Kinston East. We were proud to be the first team activated in NC, a nod to our training and equipment. This is for a team funded with donations and some commercial contracts. We don't receive any public tax money.
Luckily for everyone involved, although there was massive damage and terrible impacts on families and homes, conditions weren't bad enough to require recue work from our team, and we were released late Saturday night.
A lot of us newer members were lucky to have this deployment "dry run" so we could experience packing out the team and ourselves, and see what worked and what didn't. We were also lucky to have the hospitality of the NC National Guard, and hopefully we got to return the favor a little by having movies showing for them.
After two weeks of working wierd shifts, including a week of mids, a couple days of no sleep, the general ups and downs of the hurry up and wait reality of emergency services activations... I slept most of Sunday!
Now to look over lessons learned, re-pack bags, and prepare so things go smoother next time... as much as possible since it won't be anything we were expecting! Hehe... you'd never figure I love this stuff, would you?
Looks like things are due to get interesting around here. We've got two tropical storm/hurricanes headed our way. Looks like Cuba and Florida are going to get hammered, then they'll both head almost right over Raleigh.
Should keep the emergency services folks busy. We were supposed to have a live burn/picnic on Saturday, don't know what will happen with that now, would be a little wet I think.
Taking the truck in today, something is wrong with the front end. Hope I don't fall asleep in the waiting room. Working nights is interesting, the problem is with only 4 days of it, you get used to it about the time you stop. That's alright, could be much worse.
Overall, just adjusting to being back in a routine, and waiting for the storm to hit.
Well, I'm suprised to hear that this collection of random thoughts is actually being read. I'll have to make sure I get my facts right if I'm going to be writing about things such as the X Prize and space since there's a real rocket scientist is reading this occasionally (Hi Deborah!)
Brandon is back with us after spending some time with grandparents this summer. We're glad to have him back. He went into work with Rachel today, and had a really good time. Looks like he's going back tomorrow.
OK, I'm catching grief that I haven't yet written about Sawyer Isabella Engstrom, my new niece, one simply beautiful little girl that was born to Tara and Darrek on July 31st at 3:59 am. She was born on her due date, which we're told only about 3% of babies can read calendars well enough to hit. Of course, if I were a meteorologist I'd be pointing that statistic out to anyone giving me grief about being wrong all the time!
Speaking of babies, former co-worker Robert and his wife Julie had a good looking little boy on July 29th. Wyatt Samuel Berkowitz is in really good hands!
Have to say hi to Scott Rife, good to hear from you again!
umm.... Let's see.
I started a contract job today with AT&T, which is a good thing. Be lots to learn for a while.
Of course, under the "nothing can go smoothly for long" heading, Rachel's car had a heat light come on this morning. She and a co-worker headed over to the mechanic to find out that the car has a cracked manifold. Looks like almost $1000 and 3 days to get thing thing fixed. Thank goodness it waited until we got back from Illinois to spring this wonderful suprise on us.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but my brain has had enough for one night.