Adventure Stories

I always meant to write this story as soon as I got home from the 2005 disaster season. I had the whole thing in my head, but never found the time. It’s been 3 years since I got home from Hurricane Wilma where I spent a few months in a small town on Lake Okeechobee called Pahokee, Florida. First, let me say that Pahokee is the crappiest little town I’ve ever worked. The only industry there seemed to be drugs and prostitution. Most of the town is the poorest of the poor…just one Section 8 Housing Complex after another. Those Section 8 Housing Complexes DO NOT fare well during a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, such as Wilma. The only place I could find to stay was a gorgeous Bed & Breakfast in West Palm Beach. Oh my! What a contrast between Pahokee and West Palm Beach!!! There are no words to describe how beautiful West Palm Beach is or how ugly Pahokee. The power was out in the entire area…all of south Florida, for about a month, as I recall. And the B & B had a well wit...

I’ve worked for FEMA for 10 years now and I seem to have a psychic connection to US disasters. Also, I’m usually drawn to unusual things, like I’ll show up at the gas station at the very moment it catches on fire. Or I’ll arrive at the mall while its being robbed. I think of these things as “adventures” and even during big disasters, I seem to work the most dangerous areas. Such was the case in 2005 during the Katrina disaster. I could have been assigned to many areas to work…the entire Gulf Coast from Texas to Alabama was affected…but NO! I got assigned to a coastal area of New Orleans….a little town called Chalmette, St. Bernards Parish. You’ll probably recall this town from the news. There was a big oil spill there. Besides all the regular dangers of excessive debris, structures that were unsound, the break down of all law enforcement, we also had the added concern of poisonous snakes (there were marshes and wetlands there) and toxic mud. The Murphy oil spill du...