#11 In Baton Rouge

The flight out to Atlanta was uneventful. I had a row to myself and relaxed. Reread all of my RC materials and reviewed. Second flight was a bouncy little prop plane with cramped seats. As we flew over Baton Rouge, I couldn't help thinking how dry and normal it looked. In fact, the only water I saw was a small pond that didn't look particularly menacing.

The normalcy of the airport struck me too. People milling around. Going about their business as though nothing had ever happened in Louisiana. I retrieved my luggage on one of two small platforms. As I went out of the doors to look for the shuttle. I was hit by a wave of hot humid air. Sweating started immediatelt. I was in Louisiana.

No shuttle. Figures. Sign posted says that the last one leaves at 5:30. It is 5:35. Figures again. I call the Red Cross line to call for a shuttle. A message machine picks up stating that no one is avaialable, and that the message recorder is full. I start laughing. I started to call the after hours number, expecting about the same, when I see the shuttle.

Although I hadn't seen any of them before, there ended up being 5 of us in the van. We came from all over. One even from Canada. I struck up a friendship with a blond woman from California named, "Amy". She had somehow managed to pack everything she needed for her 10 day deployment, into a rolling book bag. I was impressed. Needless to say I overpacked, and it was not in a book bag.

We drove to the headquarters of the Red Cross. Still, everything looked normal. Driving up to the door, that changed. HQ is located in an old Wal-Mart. It looked like we were deploying for war. there was a guard outside, checking ID. You went in, lined up your luggage in the outside section, and went in. There were tables and people everywhere. Lines of people leading up to them, and loads of others in RC vest walking from one station to the next.

I logged in, did a short interview, and moved to the next staion, where I was placed in a staff shelter in Denham Springs, at a Baptist church, who's name I still keep on forgetting. The next stop was to have my picture taken, and get an ID. From there, to CLS, the department that used to be called "family services" . I registered there, and started to schmooze. It pays to schmooze. I ended up with a car to drive. I rounded up our group and a few others, and away we went.

It was a long drive to the Staff shelter. Our group consisted of "Amy", "Paul", who had come down from Alberta Canada, "Kathy", a quiet rangey woman from South Dakota, decked head to toe in Red Cross regalia, and "Wanda", a young, slightly overweight woman from Moussourri...I know...I spelled that wrong....Most of the talking on the way over was about where the heck we were going.

The directions were terrible. One said,"go a short way". The "short way" was 3 miles. We finally arrived, the church was out in east nowhere. Not many people outside, it looked pretty calm. Walking in, that changed. The floor was covered in metal cots with bodies in them. Men and women. I signed in, and went to the women only section.

I found a cot in the middle of the small sea of women, found a squishy air matress and started to drag out my stuff and set up. After setting up, I went to find "Amy" and "Paul" to drag them out for something to eat. I found "Amy" sitting on a cot, talking avidly with a young man that I was later introduced to as "Alex". I told her that I needed to get something to eat, and asked if they would like to go with me.

After some hemming and hawing, the two came along, sans "Paul". We went to a local joint where the waitress promptly dropped a bottle of Hot Sauce on the floor next to me. It went all over my foot. There I was, baptized with hot sauce. Welcome to Louisiana. Dinner was steamed shrimp and fried alligator. Yeah, you read it right. Fried alligator. Don't start.

We talked at dinner, we found that we had come out for pretty much the same reasons, a combination of curiosity and altruism. "Alex was an IT guy from Boston. "Amy", was from Orange County. She had quit her job as a teacher a year ago, and now imported something comprised of earls and magnets, or something like that from China. She loved her job. Hse told us that she had taken a year off once and back packed across Australia. That was pretty interesting.

Back at the shelter, the lights were out. I found my bed, and went to take a shower with the help of "Alex's" loaned flashlight. Four showers for 100 people. We were comparatively lucky. Some staff shelters had no showers. Wish they had as many plugs for powering up our phones. It took a while, to settle in, but I finally managed. I forget...... people snore. Hope I don't. More later,

Take care,

Lisa