T1B

Almost one year ago I anserwed the call from AT&T to work on a disaster recovery of telecommunications service like no other. I had been sent out of town on loan in the past to such beautiful places such as Brownsville, McAllen, Amarillo, Midland, and San Antonio. Those previous trips were usually for 2-3 weeks, decent hotel accomodations, and a nice per diem. After Ike decimated the Galveston/ Houston area we were polled for interest in going away for a while. The details given were only we would be gone "maybe 8 weeks" and it was unknow what kind of living quarters could be guaranteed. But we were also told the overtime was unlimited and we could possibly make 1/3 of our annual pay in as little as 6 weeks. So driven by greed I packed up a weeks worth of work clothes, a roll of snuff, couple of cases of water, and some Little Debbie snack cakes and set out on the road. Our caravan took us from Austin to Elgin, Bastrop, Columbus, and finally to some unknow town west of Houston on IH10. This was ourfirst staging ground. I met up with technicians from San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, and Laredo.


We soon got our orders to deliver generator equipement to Galveston, check in with the locals, and then we were to be sent to Houston or even Beaumont. While we waiting for the lead vehicles to go we sat in a parking lot for 6 hours.



When we finally arrived in Galveston we checked in at the hobo camp our company had established for us where we were to go next and we ate some horrid food from a primitive buffet line


We then topped off our fuel tanks at our own private filling station protected by armed guards


My directive was to follow a convoy to drop off a generator at an RT to start the network recover process


After dropping my load off at a site my group was told we were to start working trouble reports near Reliant Stadium in Houston the next day. We were given directions to our hotel which ended up being a total dump. It was run by jihad and he did not like us being there. His nice abode on Airline road typically rents the rooms by the hour and he felt he was losing out of=n his normal business. That is another story in itself. I will say I shared a romm with 3 other people and the TV got 6 stations, 4 of them free porn.

So before I hit the road back to Houston I take a mini tour of the island. I was impressed that Ike knew to fuck with everyone except the phone company.



Everywhere we went emergency workers kept approaching us to verify our well being.







A 30 minute drive back towards the interstate was all I needed to realized this place was fucked up





The last time I set foot on the island I stopped by the local Central Office to take a dump. You can see how high the water line was



When I got inside I was informed the whole office was down and the plumbing was fucked. The whole interior of the building was full of mud and all the switch equipment was toast



So I pinched my ass together to fight the turtle head and decided to find facilities elswhere. As I drove down the block I was sure I had shit myself because the fecal odor was getting horrendous. Then I realized the city wastewater system was fucked too. Here is a nice shot of black water free flowing out of a manhole about a quarter mile from a bayou off of IH10





Although I spent less than a day in Galveston I was glad to get out. I eventually worked in Houston for 6 weeks straight of 12 hour days. Very grueling work. I eventually was told to ship my camera and other "non- essential" items in company mail back to Austin becasue, quite frankly, we were working in the hood most of the time and we did not want to be too tempting for the restless natives. It was so bad that we were all issued "throw down" wallets with 8 dollars cash in them to hand over in the event we were robbed. Luckily most of the people were very cordial and accomodation of us. Loooking back I'm not sure if I will ever volunteer to go to a storm recovery like that again. Sure I made money, but the mental and physical stress lingered for months.

Pretty freaky. I dropped of a generator at a Remote Terminal right on the water. We had some of our Loop Electronics crew there to get the site back up and running. I was supposed to drop and go, but wound up shooting the breeze with the other technicians. The Coast Guard kept circling our location and finally came in closer and dropped their dude right next to us. He asked if we were good and gave a card for their local office in case we ran across anyone needing rescue or if we stumbled across any bodies. Then he was gone. Later I ran across the National Guard helicopter just chilling in the middle of the street. They were combing some wrecked out cars for bodies. It was weird being in a good sized city and the only people there are emegency and utility workers.

I have a friend in CNY who was a lineman for Niagara-Mohawk Power. He would watch the Tropical Report on the Weather Channel like a hawk and couldn't wait for a storm to rip up the Atlantic Coast so he could get in huge hours to make money for Christmas time. We had crews here from Texas after Hurricane Charlie --- were you in it then ?

Wolfman wrote:I have a friend in CNY who was a lineman for Niagara-Mohawk Power. He would watch the Tropical Report on the Weather Channel like a hawk and couldn't wait for a storm to rip up the Atlantic Coast so he could get in huge hours to make money for Christmas time. We had crews here from Texas after Hurricane Charlie --- were you in it then ?

No, never been outside of Texas before. Most of the East Coast is Verizon territory or old Bell South.

campin, see any KCP&L trucks down there during that?

I heard they sent a convoy or two.

So many electrical linemen down there I probably never paid much attention to the ones I saw, except for those from Austin Energy. Those guys are pretty tough and tend to view telco workers as "pussies" since our pole climbing certification does not go beyond 20 feet and they climb well up to 60ft+. At the same time we claim they do that work cause their too stupid to figure out a telephone color code. I respect those guys but I don't have the sack to do their job.

pole climbing certification

:lather:

sin, Stanley Fukken Pikkle

Awesome PET, bro.

RACK campinfool and this PET.