Louisiana, Katrina & the Red Cross, Page 14
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Back to Jon Vermilye's Photo Page


Back to Index Page

Another early morning. We are going to hand out cards for the last time. After today, everyone will need to do new intake forms so that checks can be mailed to them. The only good thing about getting up at 4:30AM is the shower room floor is dry! Today was the first day in awhile I had to go back to creamer & water on my breakfast cereal - no milk. We always have plenty of breakfast snacks. Check out the food tables. Also had a chance to take a photo of the pond at Tall Timbers. Now that the mornings have cooled, there is steam rising from the water at first light. A good place for a quiet morning walk.

MREs & Snacks
Fruit & Snacks
A Quiet Morning at the Pond

 

The crowd of clients waiting at 7:00AM was small; maybe a quiet day? A little after we got started, my supervisor asked me if I would be willing to take some photos for the chapter. One of the Southern Baptist kitchens was closing & they wanted some pictures before they left. The Southern Baptists are something else! The bring in a couple of tractor trailers filled with entire portable kitchens, set them up & cook for thousands. The Red Cross provides the food & makes the deliveries. At the start of this week they were cooking 6000 servings per meal; this morning they were down to 1200. At that point the kitchens were consolidated so this one closed. Unfortunately, they did their last meals between 6:00AM - 8:30AM. I got there at 10:00. They only had one or two cookers still set up.

Red Cross Food Crew Loading Chips
Packing up the Kitchen
Cooking a Last Meal
Unloading Supplies

After the photos, it was back to the Chapter Office. I did get a final photo of a map in one of the hallways that shows where everyone's home base. Looks like almost every state!

Map with Pins

 

Since I will be going to Baton Rouge tomorrow morning, I spent some of the afternoon doing my out processing which includes turning in my expenses, getting checked by the different health services, evaluations, etc.

 

Next