Passing the Torch

When I last left off, I was at the Longmont DRC. For the first few days there, we were slammed. Then they sent another FEMA Corps team, and slowly the Individual Assistance and DSA reservists began to trickle in. And soon we were faced with a very overstaffed DRC, and a decline in the amount of people that were visiting it. It was frustrating.

Not only were we left with too little work, but we were still not allowed to shorten our hours or get days off. I asked for one day off to hang out with my mom while she was in Denver for meetings, and such a big deal was made out of it that you would've thought the DRC would crumble without me there. I finally did get the day off, and lo and behold, the DRC was extremely slow that day and my teammates only talked to about 3 people each the whole day.

Usually I don't mind the long hours at the beginning of a disaster, but usually I'm working them outside. This time we were under the bright fluorescent lights of an empty store that used to be a JC Penny or something in the Twin Peaks mall. So I was sitting all day long, only seeing about an hour of sunlight a day on the  hour and a half long commute to work, and feeling useless. It was rough.

And then, while I was drinking cocktails with my mom at her hotel, good news came. Our team was out of the DRC. As the team who had spent the most time in the field doing DSA, we were chosen by the DSA folks from Headquarters to pass the torch to the incoming FEMA Corps and to do some refresher training for the Reservists. As I may have mentioned in another post, DSA (Disaster Survivor Assistance) used to be called Community Relations. Basically, they updated the program and made a lot of changes. The very first time DSA was tested in the field was with our team in West, TX. A lot of the Reservists have been doing CR for years, so it's a huge change when they get sent on disaster now.

First off, there's the iPad. That was also put into use for the first time in West. Before, if a CR team knocked on someone's door, and that person wanted to register with FEMA, they would give them the hotline number to call or tell them to go to the DRC. With the iPad, we can register them at their door or pull up their case if they're already registered to see what's going on.

The iPad also has a GIS app that allows crews in the field to mark the streets that they've hit and enter data about things they observe in the field to avoid duplicating efforts.

For the 18-24 year olds that are in FEMA Corps, learning how to use the iPad is a breeze. We've grown up with all these technological advances and they're second nature to us. However, a lot of reservists are retirees, and haven't spent the years of their lives texting or playing Candy Crush while sitting in class. They're not all as familiar with the technology, and it's a bigger learning curve.

Our job, basically, is to go out in the field and visit different crews while they're working. We can follow them around while they're canvassing or sit with them at a DRC and go over the mapping application, the registration and inquiry process, and how to access and utilize the tools available for them out in the field.

I love this job. The crews are spread out all over, so we've gotten to go to places like Sterling and Colorado Springs to work with them. The Reservists that we've worked with so far have been a lot of fun, and it's cool to meet the FEMA Corps from the Vinton, IA and Perry Point, MD campuses and swap stories.

Also, my team of trainers is awesome and we rock and we're awesome.