Hurricane Ike

DAY 17,18 AND 19th
STILL IN TEXAS! BUT GOOD NEWS.....EVERYONE HAS BEEN RELEASED. HIM AND HIS PARTNER WILL BE ON THEIR WAY TO MISSISSIPPI TOMORROW MORNING AND WE ARE HOPING THAT THEY CAN GET HIM A FLIGHT HOME TOMORROW NIGHT! SO THAT WOULD MEAN HE WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN GONE FOR TWENTY (20) DAYS!!!!! WOW.....NEVER THOUGHT HE WOULD HAVE BEEN GONE THIS LONG, BUT ITS SO EXCITING THAT IT IS ALMOST OVER AND I WILL HAVE A HUSBAND AGAIN AND HAILEE WILL HAVE A DADDY! YEAH! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!!!

DAY 15 & 16
Is my husband EVER going to come home!?! I sure hope so! Well, these past two days he has been switched to a different rig. He will now be driving to Georgia to return it. Word is that the "LAST" day is now Saturday. Whatever.... I DON'T believe them anymore. They keep saying things and not following through. FEMA is SOOO FRUSTRATING!!!!
Anyways, Gregg has run a couple of calls these past couple of days. He has been on the 8pm-8am shift. Last night they had to sleep in their rig, but tonight they get to sleep inside on their cots. Nice! All afternoon they were on "remission" so they were able to relax, read, play games, watch tv, and talk with everyone else! They definately deserve this time to finally be able to sit inside, and not be cramped up in an ambulance all day and night!
So, things are going well with him. He is anxious to get home, and we are anxious to have him home! Hopefully next week. But I'm not going to plan on any specific day, because it KEEPS CHANGING!!!

DAY 14
Happy Birthday Gregg!
Gregg is still in Texas! What a bummer way to spend your birthday!
Anyways, so far today they have been sent out on two missions. The first one they got canceled on after a 2 hour drive and now they are on their way to Houston with a patient.
Hopefully today will go by fast for him!
So now its 11:30 PM Texas time and Gregg has been extremely busy today! They have done 2 transports and has been driving for 14 hours! How grose! Alot of calls starting coming in this afternoon so they ended up having to bring more ambulances from Houston to come help. The FEMA contract was suppose to end TONIGHT at 9pm which meant that everyone would be home by Thursday or Friday at the LATEST and now they were informed that they EXTENDED the contract until SUNDAY!!!! When Gregg told me this, I just started to CRY! I was so looking forward to him being home in a couple of days. Once the FEMA contract ends, then his partner and him will have to drive their rig to Louisiana, so who knows when Gregg will be really getting home. I am so over this! lol. So is he, and EVERYONE else that is there helping!


DAY 13
It's the same ol same ol out in Texas. Gregg was switched to a new rig today since he isn't driving his to Oregon, but now he gets to drive to Louisianna! Lol. No one knows what is going on. They are hoping that they can start their drive tomorrow and then fly home either tomorrow night or Wednesday. But they aren't given any information so it's just frustrating. They stopped bringing food in so today his lunch consisted of a piece of dry bread and a Sprite. How sad! Tomorrow is Gregg's birthday. How exciting that he gets to spend it there! Just kidding! How SAD! But once he gets back, we will celebrate!

DAY 11 & 12
Well, Gregg is still in Texas. They have not done much at all. The main people keep saying that they are going to have all of these transports to run, so they sit out in the ambulances all day waiting for their assignments and then nothing. Tonight they have to sleep in the ambulance "just in case" they have to run a call. So lame. I guess one of the teams screwed it up for everyone. They got a call and it took the head quarters forever to find them, so now tonight everyone has to sleep in the rigs! How sad!
Anyways, we're crossing our fingers that Gregg will be home this week! His birthday is Tuesday, so I am really hoping that he will be home by then but I have a feeling it won't be until Thursday.
Oh , get this! They wanted him to drive one of the rigs back to Oregon. They told him it would take 5 days! So that would mean he wouldn't be back until Sunday! It is AMAZING pay! BUT Gregg misses us too much that he said no! Yeah!!! I'm so excited to have my husband home this week!

DAY 10
I am ready for Gregg to come home. This is hard. I miss him. I'm lonely with out him. I hope this next week flys by so I can be with him again!
Anyways, his day has been extremely long. They had to transport some lady to somewhere way North of Houston. I forgot the name of the place, but it was an 8 hour drive! EACH WAY! He was thinking, "Are you kidding me, they want us to drive there and BACK in the same day!?!" And of course, that's what they wanted. Thankfully he put up a stink and said you guys are idiots, we aren't going to do that. It's too long of a drive and too dangerous for us to drive that many hours being tired! He was finally able to convince them into paying for a hotel so they can get a good night's rest before the drive back tomorrow. So, now he is enjoying the luxury for a night sleeping on a bed instead of a cot and gets to enjoy a WARM shower instead of cold ones!
I'm glad that he gets to enjoy the simple luxury of life for a night again!


I realized that I have not posted any pictures of Hailee this week...so here are a few random ones!

Day 8 & 9

On Wednesday, Gregg had to transport a very, very, VERY old man to somewhere right outside Houston. They honestly didn't think that he would make it. But thankfully he did. They were able to see some of the mess that the Hurricane caused! How exciting!

That transfer took up the entire afternoon until early this morning.

Old man that they transferred

Today they were lucky again and they were able to relax all day. There was a big meeting held tonight and they told everyone that in the next few days, there are about 600 plus people that need to be moved back to the ecavuated areas. Thank goodness they are getting their rest now because it sounds like they wont be getting any starting in a few days!

Beautiful Texas sunset

Some of the cots. One looking to the right of him and the next picture looking to the left.

Day SEVEN!

Wow...what a LOONG week this has been with out Gregg!

Anyways, things have been very relaxing for him today. They haven't done anything besides relax, trip to Wal-mart, read and relax some more! This morning Gregg was put in charge of his whole team while his Team Leader was out, so Gregg made sure everyone took full of the relaxation time, and also let everyone sleep in! I bet everyone LOVED Gregg for that! I am SO happy that they are FINALLY giving these guys a break to catch up on some sleep and relax a little bit!

The word is that Gregg will still be returning home on September 25. There are 3 more hurricanes that are working their way up to Texas. The first one isn't supposed to be anything major, but they are keeping a close watch on the following two. Hopefully they will turn out to be nothing so everyone can return home to their families!

Things are home are going well. This past week has gone by extremely slow, mainly because Hailee and I have not done much at all. Big mistake. This week is already flying by! I can't believe Tuesday is almost over! I have already been keeping much, much busier! So thank you to all my friends who are keeping me company and hanging out! You guys are the greatest!

Day 6

So today was not a very exciting day for Gregg and his partner. Last night they were told that they would be working on base all day, but it seems like every time anyone gets an assignment, 90% of the time, it is changed before they even start! So, this afternoon, Gregg and his partner were told that they needed to transport this old lady to Gorman, TX. Gregg told me it was a 6 HOUR drive....EACH WAY!!!! So sick! I just got off the phone with him, and it is now 12:30am there time and they are still driving back. Poor guy! Everyone is so beat right now! They will be getting a new assignment first thing tomorrow morning, hopefully it will be better!

As for home life, things are going good.Hailee is finally feeling better!

The hard thing though is that it seems like he has been gone FOREVER! It's getting harder each day having him gone. I just miss my hubby and love him so much! ( I definitely wouldn't do good if Gregg was always traveling for work. I don't know how some of you do it! You are definitely strong!")

Day 5

Today Gregg and his team were in San Antonio all day. They were told that they were going to be sent out as search and rescue, but their "Team Captain" guy slept through the meeting he was supposed to attend early in the morning. It ended up not changing anything because the whole day's schedule was pushed back due to road closures.

Gregg's team finally did get their assignment for tonight and tomorrow: to be on base checking new evacuee's in making sure that if they need medical aid that they will get it. (Either from them or from a hospital). These shifts run for 12 hours at a time. Gregg will be working from 9:30am to 9:30pm tomorrow. He is actually really excited to be able to have alot of down time out of the ambulance and a good night's sleep! After tomorrow they will most likely be given a new assignment.

DAY 3 & 4

Sept. 11 2008: 2:47 am They were woken up and were told that they needed to go evacuate more people in a city. (By now they have had only 2 hours of sleep). They got in the ambulances and drove for an hour or so and then were cancelled and drove back to where they were stationed.
10:00am: They were told to evacuate elderly from Sweeney, TX. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Sweeney.Once they got their, they loaded up 2 patients and took them to safe grounds. Gregg said that the traffic is starting to get really bad with everyone evacuating.
5:30PM : On their way to Bay City for more evacuations.
10:45 PM: On their way to Beaumont. They had no idea if they were going here to evacuate people or to get rest. Once they arrived in Beaumont, they were a little confused. This town pretty much consisted of only a huge arena type thing. There weren't any food places or anything! Some people gave them some of their left over pizza. They were told that they could sleep here, for a maximum of 4 hours! There weren't any cots or places to sleep, so they had to do their best at sleeping in the ambulances. How uncomfortable! They managed to get 2 hours of sleep before they were told that they needed to go to Port Arthur.
2:45 am: Woken up to go evacuate people from a hospital in Port Arthur. They are beyond exhausted now. They longest length of sleep they have gotten through out these past couple of days is 3 hours! They headed to Post Arthur and got their patients from the hospital and headed to San Antonio, a 4 hour drive!
Now that they are in San Antonio, they can shower and hopefully get some sleep! Everyone has been ordered to take ground here until after the storm!

National Hurricane News:

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike bore down on Texas, heading for landfall as early as today in Galveston, where forecasters warned residents of ``certain death'' if they ignore a mandatory evacuation order.
The warning from the National Hurricane Center also applies to coastal areas around Galveston, southeast of Houston, where highways were jammed yesterday as thousands fled inland. Parts of Galveston were already flooded, half a day before the storm's eye is expected to come ashore. Galveston Bay will be hit by an ocean surge as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters), and water levels a mile in from the coast may exceed 9 feet, the center said.
"All neighborhoods and possibly entire coastal communities will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,'' the center said. ``Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family, one- or two-story homes may face certain death.''
Ike, which tripled in size in the Gulf of Mexico in the past two days, was a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (169 kph), the center said just before 10 a.m. Houston time. Ike is following a track similar to the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 8,000 people, the deadliest storm in U.S. history. The U.S. weather center said Ike may strengthen to Category 3, meaning sustained winds of at least 111 mph, before the eye crosses the coast, placing it in the middle rank of the Saffir- Simpson scale of intensity. Other forecasters predict Ike may become a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of at least 131 mph, the second-strongest on the five-step scale. Ike's winds cover an area larger than that of Katrina, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc. Hurricane-force winds stretch across 240 miles, equivalent to the distance between New York to Washington.

News from Home:
*I can't even imagine how tired everyone must be! They truly are all amazing people to go for days with out sleep to make sure that everyone is evacuated and safe! I really miss Gregg and can't wait for him to come home! I have been trying to keep busy to make the time pass by. Hailee is still sick. I have been getting about 4 hours of sleep each night because I have been up with her. I hope she gets better fast!

DAY 1 & 2

As most of you all know, Gregg was deployed as a Paramedic to Texas to help with the evacuations and medical needs. He arrived in Texas yesterday morning and went to the head post and sat around all day waiting for their orders. At about 7 pm last night, his team headed to San Antonio to where they would be stationed for the night. They arrived at their post around 1am our time (3 am Texas) and then around 5am, they finally were able to get some sleep! They stayed on some base last night at one of the evacuation centers. Gregg said that it looked like the movies...it was an enormous auditorium center with thousands of cots ready to go! If you have been watching the news and have seen the hundreds of buses that are ready to go, that is where they slept last night. Anyways, they got some shut eye for a few hours and then were back up to start getting their ambulances ready for the day.
He said that today is extremely hot and MUGGY!
He is on team #28 (as of last night, there were 31 teams, all which consist of 10-15 people. More teams are arriving today). They just got their orders and his team will be heading down to El Campo, Texas today!

They are now on their way to El Campo. It's about a 3 hour drive from San Antonio. There are 15 ambulances and about 6 buses. He is not quite sure what their orders will be, but they will find out when they get there! He said "This is cool! What an amazing thing to see all of this!"

The picture above is a huge line of ambulances waiting to find out where they are supposed to go. As of right now, Gregg and his group are still in El Campo, They were supposed to be sent out to some other city to start evacuations, but they have been put on hold until tomorrow, once the hurricane starts getting closer.
National Hurricane News:
The hurricane center said Ike may become a "major hurricane,'' meaning a Category 3 storm with wind speeds of at least 111 mph, in the next day. The system is forecast to sweep through the center of the Gulf, missing the offshore Louisiana oil and natural gas fields, and make landfall on the central Texas coast north of Corpus Christi on Sept. 13.


News from Home:
Things here are going good. Just keeping busy to make the time while Gregg is to gone pass quickly. Yesterday evening, Hailee was crawling outside and fell off the porch step onto the cement and bruised up her head and eye. Poor girl! I think I cried more then she did! Today she has been wiped out! I don't know if its from her fall or teething, or both, but she has slept so much today! If you know Hailee, she is not one to sleep at all, so this has been unusual. Also, she has had a 102.2 temperature tonight! Poor girl! Hope she gets better fast!