The end is near
After suffering public shaming for years, the relentless ridicule and humiliation of friends and family, against my better judgment I finally gave in to the endless peer pressure, drank the current version of the Jim Jones Cool Aid, was dragged over to the dark side kicking and screaming and bought a smart phone.
Now I can finally communicate with my kids (and some friends) during meals by texting them across the table while pretending to scroll and count how many 'likes' I have in my yet to be created social media account, to provide me with the positive affirmation I so desperately need and crave.
My previous flip phone, while a hell of a lot cheaper, made the same phone calls as the best of them and is now in the local...eh...museum. Happy Ian? :)
Home away from home
We settled in for spell at daughter Cassie's place this month, while Janice got Chemo treatments 4 and 5 behind her. This gave me a chance to make myself useful some while mooching, so Janice could get much needed time to rest.
Teaching Papa new magic
Art and Cassie
Favorite son Wesley came to visit during our stay
But then, in a flash, I was gone.
OPERATION DORIAN
It's that time of the year again. Time to get in touch with life as lived by so many others year round. I have mentioned that I was asked to deploy to the Bahamas with Team Rubicon the day after hurricane Dorian hit back in September, but turned them down because of Janice's need for me to stay with her at the island. No sooner had I settled her in with Cassie days after we arrived from the island, they reminded me that while the world has long forgotten them, the folks in the Bahamas (like the folks in Puerto Rico who are still devastated and trying to rebuild from hurricane Maria in 2017) are in one helluva mess and are seriously hurting.
Since they were offering an all expense paid trip to lay on the beaches in the Bahamas, I couldn't pass it up. I rushed to get my vaccinations up to date (MMR, Tetanus and Hepatitis A & B) and completed the 7 page medical eligibility requirements. I am not a disaster junkie, but I had committed to volunteer 2 weeks per year and this was only my 3rd foray. Since I am on the international team, this was my first foreign deployment. So, I was off.
Just so I didn't go under any illusions as to what to expect, I got this friendly uplifting reminder from them before I left.
Since they were offering an all expense paid trip to lay on the beaches in the Bahamas, I couldn't pass it up. I rushed to get my vaccinations up to date (MMR, Tetanus and Hepatitis A & B) and completed the 7 page medical eligibility requirements. I am not a disaster junkie, but I had committed to volunteer 2 weeks per year and this was only my 3rd foray. Since I am on the international team, this was my first foreign deployment. So, I was off.
Just so I didn't go under any illusions as to what to expect, I got this friendly uplifting reminder from them before I left.
Personal Capability Requirements
to deploy on this operation:
"Before you step on the plane, we wanted to provide you some guidance on this and all international deployments. Due to the austere nature of international operations and given the destructive power of the storm, there is very little vehicle transport on Abaco Island. This storm devastated the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, so much that 70% of the islands' residents have evacuated and have yet to return.
You must be able to thrive in austere conditions. You will be sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. Meals will be MREs (US Army Meals Ready to Eat and water). Showers will be via water hose. Outhouses would be an upgrade. You must be physically able to carry your own weight, personal gear, and strike team equipment to your work site in tropical weather. There will be multiple modes of travel to include helicopter, sea plane, private jet, yacht, and other watercraft. You are likely to encounter human remains on this operation.
Attached are your travel orders, dispatch instructions and a video (above) of your work site. Thank you for taking the time out of your lives and stepping into the arena to help those in the Bahamas recover from Hurricane Dorian. Now go kick disaster in the teeth and get shit done.
Your teammates at dispatch."
OK then, let the fun begin....
I flew the 16 hours from Oregon to Nassau, spent the night and made the second flight to Marsh Harbor, the central town on Abaco island. At 120 miles in length, it covers 650 sq miles. It was by far the worst hit area of hurricane Dorian. We were located 200 miles east of Miami and 120 miles north of Nassau off of Grand Bahamas. The local airport was destroyed and only fly by the seat of the pants flights could come in.
Honey I'm home!
The whole "I am off to save the world" thing is great, but truth be told there is a part of me that needs this yearly experience to ground myself in reality. We joke about it 'not being an easy life we lead', but the fact is we may have worked hard for what we have but it is still much more than we deserve. It is the very definition of being blessed and I want to preserve my attitude of gratitude at all costs.
I was on a 15 day wave of 52 mostly ex-military, hard charging, type A personalities (my kind of people!) who simply don't know the meaning of "I can’t" and only know how to adjust, adapt and overcome any problem. What could possibly go wrong? To be fair, they did their very best to keep up with me :) The conditions were brutal but the experience was incredible.
During our deployment, we had 2 medics, a nurse and a doctor. They were available in their capacity if needed but were assigned to work with strike teams like the rest of us. The doctor was assigned to work on the team I lead, which was one of seven. The US coast guard was prepared to medivac anyone on the team back to Miami if necessary as there was little in the way of medical resources otherwise available.
There was no electricity or functioning cell towers where I went, so no phones or Wi-Fi. [What? No FOX news? Catastrophe!!! Say it isn't so!!!] For the next two weeks I might as well have been on the far side of the moon.
I have been told that there is a certain perversity in choosing to subject yourself to hideous conditions on purpose when it can be avoided. A fair statement, but for me does not tell the whole story.
The whole "I am off to save the world" thing is great, but truth be told there is a part of me that needs this yearly experience to ground myself in reality. We joke about it 'not being an easy life we lead', but the fact is we may have worked hard for what we have but it is still much more than we deserve. It is the very definition of being blessed and I want to preserve my attitude of gratitude at all costs.
These deployments remind me just how quickly, easily and randomly it can all be taken away. I know perfectly well what the little I did amounted to... except to those people who we did help.
Enough said. Here is what it looked like on the ground.
With many roads being out, sometimes there is was no other way to get around, especially to the outlying islands.
I was on a 15 day wave of 52 mostly ex-military, hard charging, type A personalities (my kind of people!) who simply don't know the meaning of "I can’t" and only know how to adjust, adapt and overcome any problem. What could possibly go wrong? To be fair, they did their very best to keep up with me :) The conditions were brutal but the experience was incredible.
During our deployment, we had 2 medics, a nurse and a doctor. They were available in their capacity if needed but were assigned to work with strike teams like the rest of us. The doctor was assigned to work on the team I lead, which was one of seven. The US coast guard was prepared to medivac anyone on the team back to Miami if necessary as there was little in the way of medical resources otherwise available.
The conditions
There was no electricity or functioning cell towers where I went, so no phones or Wi-Fi. [What? No FOX news? Catastrophe!!! Say it isn't so!!!] For the next two weeks I might as well have been on the far side of the moon.
In the US, no matter how bad things are locally, Team Rubicon can truck in portable showers, sleeping trailers (sometimes), a mobile kitchen, toilets, as many rented pickup trucks as we need for transportation, earth movers, skip loaders, backhoes and tractor trailers full of all manner of tools and equipment from hundreds of miles away if necessary from our storage depots located throughout the US. Each operation has a tractor trailer for a command office, complete with generators and a satellite uplink. Here, nothing could be brought in unless it was flown or barged in.
We could not trust the local water supply so we treated our own and stored it in the 5000 liter collapsible storage bag (brown bag above the wall) to the multiple spigots.
Food on stateside deployments is always terrific but we knew going in that this would not be the case under these conditions. The MRE's (US Army Meals Ready to Eat, AKA field rations) and water we were provided 3 times a day were OK, and only tasted bad while we ate them. Lest there be any misunderstanding about how we really felt about these culinary treats, we quickly renamed them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. No complaints though, we all knew that we didn't come for the dental plan.
Personal hygiene is critical in this environment. At home we have shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, dish soap and clothes detergent. Not having a Sherpa to lug extra stuff around, here a bar of soap served all purposes.
Some have asked if the damage done by hurricane Dorian was worse than what I saw in Mexico Beach, Florida last year. At some point you can't see more damage when it is total. Both locations had neighborhoods where street after street could not be identified as to where you were, as there was nothing left recognizable. No street signs, no house numbers - no houses - just cement slabs where homes had been and piles of splintered wood, glass, wire, metal and insulation. Furniture, appliances and bed mattresses could be seen impaled in tree stumps sometimes a mile or more from where they came.
I guess the biggest difference is that in Florida, the damage was over a 50 mile radius. In the Bahamas, the category 5 storm with 185 MPH (300 KPH) lasted 4 days and covered over 1200 square miles. I could post these kinds of pictures all day long but this sampling should give you the idea.
Another big difference is that Dorian changed the topography of the islands. There are now bays where there were none and some that existed are filled in with sediment that got moved. 95% of the locals have no insurance and 70% of the residents have left and not returned. Not surprising with so much of the electrical grid out of commission. No lights, phones or Internet and obviously no refrigeration, A/C, ability to cook, water pumps and on and on... Did I mention no FOX news? :)
We could not trust the local water supply so we treated our own and stored it in the 5000 liter collapsible storage bag (brown bag above the wall) to the multiple spigots.
Food on stateside deployments is always terrific but we knew going in that this would not be the case under these conditions. The MRE's (US Army Meals Ready to Eat, AKA field rations) and water we were provided 3 times a day were OK, and only tasted bad while we ate them. Lest there be any misunderstanding about how we really felt about these culinary treats, we quickly renamed them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. No complaints though, we all knew that we didn't come for the dental plan.
MRE's: Breakfast, lunch and dinner of champions
Personal hygiene is critical in this environment. At home we have shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, dish soap and clothes detergent. Not having a Sherpa to lug extra stuff around, here a bar of soap served all purposes.
Fill your bag in the AM, lay it out in the sun
and shower upon your return to base.
and shower upon your return to base.
When the 3 gallons are gone, you are done.
The wave that preceded mine had located a vacant school that
had sustained some damage but could be salvaged. They tarped the roof and gutted
the building to the studs, removing all soaked drywall, insulation and moldy
furniture. They, we moved in and took it over as our quarters and staging area.
Some of us had to stay in emergency pods outdoors. (because of the look, we dubbed the area 'space camp') In a re-play of last year, this time I was put in the corner of
Mrs. Sanders 2nd grade classroom with 7 other people (co – ed)
My corner of the gutted classroom. The nets were due to the abundance of flies.
The flies were due to human remains still under so much debris nearby.
The flies were due to human remains still under so much debris nearby.
Some of the emergency pods some of us stayed in,
in an area we dubded 'space camp'.
For our convenience we were provided
with washing machines to do our laundry...
with washing machines to do our laundry...
...and dryers
Some have asked if the damage done by hurricane Dorian was worse than what I saw in Mexico Beach, Florida last year. At some point you can't see more damage when it is total. Both locations had neighborhoods where street after street could not be identified as to where you were, as there was nothing left recognizable. No street signs, no house numbers - no houses - just cement slabs where homes had been and piles of splintered wood, glass, wire, metal and insulation. Furniture, appliances and bed mattresses could be seen impaled in tree stumps sometimes a mile or more from where they came.
I guess the biggest difference is that in Florida, the damage was over a 50 mile radius. In the Bahamas, the category 5 storm with 185 MPH (300 KPH) lasted 4 days and covered over 1200 square miles. I could post these kinds of pictures all day long but this sampling should give you the idea.
How much worse could it be?
OK, fellas. Let's start on 3rd avenue.
Hmmm... where is 3rd avenue?
Hmmm... where is 3rd avenue?
Another big difference is that Dorian changed the topography of the islands. There are now bays where there were none and some that existed are filled in with sediment that got moved. 95% of the locals have no insurance and 70% of the residents have left and not returned. Not surprising with so much of the electrical grid out of commission. No lights, phones or Internet and obviously no refrigeration, A/C, ability to cook, water pumps and on and on... Did I mention no FOX news? :)
So what did we do?
Generally, we worked on what we called 'societal restoration', not to be confused with what the military would call 'nation building'. We patched holes in roofs with plywood then tarped them to
keep the water out, brought in tractor trailer sized generators to re-open
schools and provide power to some residential sectors, and cleared debris to re-open
roads.
Two of the 6 people on my strike team, helping me tarp a roof.
The others gutted the interior to the studs to remove moldy
furniture, appliances, drywall insulation and ductwork.
furniture, appliances, drywall insulation and ductwork.
The idea being
that if we could help not only home owners to get back into their homes and schools, but clinics to reopen, businesses get back up running so people can slowly
return to their jobs, earn a living, provide services for more to return, we
can begin the cycle of putting their society back together again.
Welcome to the 'hood
Often, I would struggle with the time and effort we were
putting in to salvage what were very modest homes to begin with. Even when the
exterior looked somewhat salvageable, the 185 mph winds and 4 days or
relentless rain pouring through the shattered windows and filled the houses with
water.
People evacuated and two months later in the 85 degree weather with 90%
humidity we opened the doors to what was now a mold incubator. Walls, ceilings,
floors, furniture, appliances all covered with mold. My solution? A match. Easy for me to say, but I had to
remind myself that this was all they had. Period.
We helped the World Central Kitchen organization set up
their site to cook 8000 meals a day as there are no grocery stores
open to supply the relatively few remaining residents. We even brought food out
by boat to the outlying islands. (As if Abaco was not remote enough!) Every business - bar none- was destroyed and looted. Now, pretty
much everything has to be flown in at great costs as even the only port
sustained much damage and is only able to accommodate fairly small ships and
only one at a time.
How do you cook 8,000 meals a day?
You use 5 foot wide frying pans (they had 8 of them)
Boats piled up on top of each other at the port.
Hundreds more were on rooftops, in the trees or on the roads.
Hundreds more were on rooftops, in the trees or on the roads.
Reinforced concrete walls could not
stand up to the 4 days of 185 MPH winds.
Guardrail impaled in a palm tree
Parts of the Bahamas fared better than others, but not where we were. All in all, the area we
were in resembled Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. As the video I took
below shows, as close to total destruction as can be imagined. It was as if God
himself decided that the area should cease to exist and stomped his foot on it.
Be sure to open to full screen
Abaco has gone from a tourist destination to sail, fish and lay on the beaches to a 3rd world country that, in my opinion, will not be put back together again in my lifetime. Occasionally, we would find a home that we could do something
to help restore and get the family back in.
Thousands of telephone poles (and virtually all trees) snapped like tooth pics, leaving hundreds of miles of power and phone lines twisted like spaghetti on roadways, across sidewalks, in peoples yards and trees.
Sadly, I saw no government activity of any kind working to restore anything.
The place looked like the hurricane had hit yesterday.
My two week deployment over for the year, I happily returned
filthy and exhausted to the arms of my trophy bride.
