Well I just found out I'm headed to ground zero for Charley next week. We have trucks going in to coordinate with one of my customers and I need to be there to make sure everything goes well. From what I understand, my customer is working with The Red Cross and we need to pull off a logistics miracle. That's on Monday morning.
Tuesday I head back down with some of my corporate customers to Naples and Ft. Meyers. I'm kinda the ambassador of good will, letting the sales reps know that I care and survey the damage for myself.
I've been ordered to take pictures and I'll share some with you when I get back Tuesday nite.
I'm not really thrilled to be going. I feel like I'm traveling into the belly of the beast. But it may be the best thing for me. I've seen a lot of the damage here in Polk County and Orlando. Tomorrow I head to Daytona and surrounding area so I'll be checking out the situation there. But I don't want to SEE it. Not really. I know what it was like at my house. (BTW, I found out today that the winds over my house were clocked at 100mph, with gusts on top of that.) I've seen so much already. But I have to.
So the plan is, I'm going to stop by Publix on Sunday and fill my trunk with gallons of water. Fill my coolers with ice. It's not much but it's something. I can't go down there empty handed. I also think I'll pick up bags of chocolate. Chocolate always makes you feel better. Any other ideas? I don't have much money right now, so unfortunetly I can't do all the things I'd like to, but I NEED to do something.
Slowly things are coming back to life around here. I ventured to the far west side of Orlando today, and will be down town on Saturday. Trying to stay out of some areas until the traffic lights are working again.
Anyway - wanted to see if any of you had any additional ideas for next week.
Posted by Tammi at August 18, 2004 05:45 PMYou'll do great. You've got the skills and the needed knowledge, and know how to get folks to 'snap to'.
The one thing we needed most, when the guy downstairs burned the apartment building up, was a bed. Red Cross got us a voucher for it, and I'm still thankful for them and the company who provided that voucher.
Some people serve without a uniform or a nice paycheck, you know...
Posted by: Chap at August 18, 2004 06:41 PMThats good to hear, and thanks for the kind words.
I just spoke with my one of my best friends in Bradenton and we are going to work together to buy, in addition to water, formula, diapers, kids activity games, band aides and such. She has 3 bags of really good summer kids clothes that I'm going to take down. I'm also going through my shorts and tshirts and packing up some of those. She picks up the Charlotte Harbor radio station and those were some of the things that were mentioned.
Posted by: Tammi at August 18, 2004 06:58 PMHey, you know those ice substitute thingies you can get at the grocery store to put in your cooler? You know, the re-freezable pouches, usually filled with blue liquid? I wonder if you could get a bunch of those somewhere, cheap. They might stay frozen longer than ice, be lighter and less messy. Just a thought. I think it's great you're assembling all this stuff. If I lived closer, I'd offer to come by and help!
Posted by: Dana at August 18, 2004 08:26 PMThe only thing I can think of that might freeze longer than ice is if you actually freeze a gallon of water.
I think what you're doing is awesome!
We're coming up on a week... there is much devastation still, but there has been clean up too.
Positive thoughs from me to you!
Posted by: Boudicca at August 18, 2004 08:50 PMBou's right - freeze the (3/4) full jugs of water, and you get both ice AND water.
Also consider filling ziploc bags (mostly full) with water and freezing those.
Finally, on the chocolate front... there are some melting concerns. I heard it's REALLY hot down there. Less melty things would be Tootsie Rolls & Hershey's Chocolate flavored Tastations (possibly the best chocolate hard candy ever invented).
Posted by: Harvey at August 19, 2004 09:59 AM