June 12th, 2008

7:45 am Feeling rested or full of adrenaline (issue could be debated); we drove into Columbus to report for work. As we drove down the roads we saw many houses with piles of water logged personal items sitting along the curbsides. What a sad site.

The area’s hospital along with human services building has been evacuated and many people are calling to find out where to go for services. The Volunteer Reception Center is busy trying to align volunteers with those who need volunteers. Many of the farmers have been impacted by loosing cattle and fields.

10:30 am The call center is working very well in an organized and methodical way. The Columbus Call Center is a staff of 3 ½ employees and they are handling things very well. I feel the best help I have been is identifying that the staff needed a critical stress group debriefing. After going through the debriefing session and giving the staff needed support I feel that they were better equipped to deal with the stress of the flood response.

2:00 pm I have worked on pulling resources by monitoring the newspaper and email accounts. I have pulled the information and fed it into a staff person for verification. I tried to focus on the outlying counties in their region for them. They are changing their resource sheets every couple of hours, and posting them on their website. Theresa is working on the phones.

6:00 pm The Volunteer Center has fed us and we are heading back to the hotel. The call center in Columbus rolls their calls to Indianapolis over night and on the weekends. So far, the word has it that Indianapolis is managing the surge in calls just fine. We are not sure what the weekend will hold for Theresa and I, or if we will be needed.

10:00 pm The local news reports mild looting of people’s belongings in Columbus. They are also worried about the anticipated storm that is to hit us mid day tomorrow, after 2:00 pm. Through Saturday with another front on Sunday American Red Cross has set up their disaster case management and assessment of needs from the flood victims. FEMA is on their way.