Day Seven, 9.24.08

Hi Team,

So much has happened since Ground Team Ike last posted, it’s hard to even know where to begin and what to include. When we last updated, Jane, Patricia, and I were just entering Mississippi. Patricia successfully completed the grueling 536 mile drive, with only 1 break for gas. Patricia definitely is a trooper.

Once we arrived in Houston, we were able to meet up with a couple temporary Ground Team Ike members from One Economy and one of our partners, Trifusion. Jane, Patricia, and I were so happy to have finally made it to Houston, know we weren’t going to be going at this alone the first day, and see a familiar face. So happy, in fact, we promptly parked the RV and jumped into James Gore’s (another One Economy employee) rental car to grab some dinner and spend some much needed time away from Stella.

This morning, the real adventure began. Jane, Patricia, and I were all up promptly before 7am, showered and ready to go (after some great pancakes courtesy of Patricia) before 9. Together with a couple Trifusion volunteers, a couple AT&T volunteers, and some excellent extra OE support (thanks Lee!) we were able to put together a temporary set-up station to prep the computers and get everything else ready for an afternoon open time on our big first day.

Although none of us expected everything to run absolutely flawlessly, little did we know the adventure we had in store. Despite the fact we started putting things together as early as we could manage after a draining couple of days, we realized were well behind schedule after only a short while of working to get everything ready. The Ripley House, the predominantly Spanish speaking community center we’re located at, had been a FEMA pod location so almost immediately people were coming up to us looking for help. Hearing their stories breaks your heart and everyone helping us set up wanted to do anything we could to help these people.

After experiencing some significant delays, that should only happen this one time according to the two amazing AT&T tech people that came out to help save the day(!), we were up and running by 1:30 and at full speed with all the computers hooked up by 3pm! By the end of the day, everyone on Ground Team Ike agreed that despite the problems and obstacles today had been a great success. Thanks to the food and water Trifusion brought (6 pallets in total – all gone before noon), we were able to feed 60-70 families today. Thanks to the computer and cell phone charging we were able to help 20-25 people. I realized these numbers may seem a little low for the first day, but keep in mind that was 20-25 people without any advertising, media, or prior knowledge about who we were or what we were doing. I think its going to be a really great several weeks we have this RV down in Texas. We going to be able to help tons of people fill out FEMA forms, file for insurance, find relief, and help get their lives back on track.

I guess the best thing for us to have taken away from today and keep with us, no matter who the people composing Ground Team Ike happen to be, is rely on each other. There is no way one person or one team can do this alone. Without the AT&T team, Ground Team Ike would have been pretty useless today and that’s just one small example of how much we were reminded that none of this could have come together without everyone who has been and will be involved. We all need to remember to listen to whomever we’re speaking to and work together to find the best solution. This RV IT Lab is going to cause a lot of good for those who come use the computers and helping people get relief and piece of mind will help ease our frustrations and keep us motivated.

We’re going to keep on, keeping on. Thanks for all the support!