FEMA

We are working with FEMA as our sponsor. At first, there was a project for us that consisted of going out into the community and surveying houses damaged from the hurricanes. Lately, a few of us have been working with an organization called Churches of Christ, which helps people out with food donations, furniture and sheet rock delivery. It is a very good program and well worth being a part of. This past Thursday, we worked with a Texan to deliver sheet rock to homes that needed rebuilding. We delivered approximately 740 sheets to about 5 homes over the course of the day. Friday, Saturday and Monday, we worked in a house to gut it, which basically means taking out the drywall and everything in the house, leaving only the basic parts- the studs. We even got to rip out a wooden floor in the main room of the house. It was a lot of fun and we got to use sledgehammers to rip up floors.
Today, we wanted to work with the Army Corps of Engineers, but it turns out that he didn't have anything for us to do right now. We went out to lunch and got a tour of Oak Island, which is very destroyed by the hurricanes. Then we came back to the FEMA office and learned about Microsoft Access for a couple of hours.
A couple Saturdays ago, some of us went on a tour of Chambers County to see all of the damage and assess it. There is a lot of damage and it was really sad to look at. We got to drive up to the one house left standing in Gilchrist that was all over the news, which was kind of neat. We also got to see this alligator up close, which was pretty exciting!
On a lighter note, the people of Beaumont and surrounding areas are really nice people in general. They are very friendly and appreciative of what we are doing here. Although downtown Beaumont is pretty quiet, we have a movie theater next to our hotel and quite a few restaurants and stores, so we are doing pretty well activity wise. On Martin Luther King Day, my team and I went to a parade and then festivities afterward where MLK was praised.

Getting things done with FEMA in Beaumont Texas!

So now that Christmas and New Years are over, I have gone back to Colorado and am in Texas now, I have survived the first day of working with FEMA! We are staying in an extended stay hotel. I am staying in a room with three other girls in a room, which should be interesting. We have to make our own meals, so we shopped for food tonight at the grocery store. It's really hard to budget food when there are ten people to shop for, including vegetarian food.
We had our first day in Beaumont Texas at the FEMA AFO today, which was interesting. We filled out a lot of paperwork but still don't know all of what we will be doing for the next two months. We will most likely be finding out tomorrow!
We have to get up at 6:30 so we can get up to work at 8:00. Our work days are Monday through Saturday- Monday through Friday 8:00 to 5:00 and Saturday is 8:00 to 12:00.