First Person Account from my Boyfriend

[enduringplum]

My boyfriend of three years has been working in and around New Orleans, as I'm sure you know by now. Tonight I received a detailed e-mail from him about what he's seen and done. It's behind the cut.

Hi everybody. 

G— and I are once again roomates.  We were in an RV our company is paying for doing work in Baton Rouge for the people coordinating the disaster efforts.  I made noise until I was sent to Troop B in Kenner and then to down town New Orleans.  G— stayed in Baton Rouge, but yesterday and today he was sent to New Orleans with me.  Our company's management did this simply so he'd be able to see his city.  Today, the RV I was in was moved, G's— RV was brought here to Sprint City where I've been staying.  His RV is big enough for two, three, really.  There's one leather sofa, one leather pullout sofa/bed, and one actual queen sized bed in the back.  It's got two televisions, and a receiver for Direct TV.  We haven't figured out how to get the Direct TV to work, but the Xbox is connected to the television in the bed room, so we're cool.  Like I said, the RV we're in is pretty cool.  G— says it's nicer than any of his other places.  I think the other guys here in Sprint City have RV NV... GET IT!? RV NV?  It's supposed to be like RV envy!

     Right now, he's eating an MRE he found that I'd gotten from one of the private security guards Sprint has guarding its assets here.  He saw I had it yesterday and was instantly fascinated with it.  He asked if he could have it, and even after I told him he could get one from a box of MREs back at the camp, he had to have this one.  I gave it to him, and tonight he finally got to eat it.  He's been constantly telling me about it, like it's some kind of toy opened on Christmas morning.  He's mentioned it on at least five occasions today and even after we had a dinner of catered chicken tacos or something, he's decided to eat the MRE.  He's spent about 15 minutes talking about it (it's self heating), like it's the coolest thing ever.

     My boss and the other owners of our company are gods among men.  Not only are they keeping us working (most N.O. companies are laying off their employees), he's going to rent us and a few other displaced emplyees, a house to live in while we get things straight.  He's even planning to buy one or possibly two cars for G— and I since we lost ours and have no transportation.  We're getting our normal pay, plus a bonus for working for two solid weeks, plus commissions on accessory sales, and phone activations we help out with.  Right now, I'd kill a man for the owners; it really makes me feel loved by my company, which is a nice change.

     G— and myself have been busy keeping relief workers' phones running, and providing any other help we can.  I met the chief of police and mayor Nagin over the last few days, which is pretty cool.  Our city is a wreck, but there are a lot of people who're determined help her come back.  I think it'll come back better than before.  There will be tons of new construction, and most of the riff-faff is either in another state and won't be able to get back, or dead.  There's going to be lots of new businesses moving back in and I think things will be better with time.  The heart of the city (French Quarter, St Charles, etc...), is intact and that's the important part.  Those are some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the country, and it'd be a shame to lose them.  Seeing all the people that were coming in to help our city was really heartwarming.  I've got a pretty large photo collection of cars from law enforcement from all over.  I'd like more disaster pictures (as awful as that sounds), but I haven't had *that* much opportunity for exploration.  I hear J.P. [a good friend of his] has a good collection. 

     I'd rather not focus on the bad that's happened here.  It shouldn't be ignored, but I'm dealing with a lot right now and don't want to get all depressed or angry.  It feels really good to be taking part in the efforts to get the city back under control.  I won't claim to be in a dangerous area or anything, I'm basically in the most secure area in the southern united states.  But to have these law enforcement guys; cops, feds, military thanking G—, me, Nextel/Sprint for doing what we're doing is nothing short of amazing.  They're risking their lives occasionally taking gun fire, rescuing people, doing some awsome shit, and they're genuinely thanking some phone jockey.  Apparently our phones were the only communication some of these guys have.  One State Trooper told me the units have just saved some of his guys' lives.  I thought he was joking until he reitterated what he'd said.  That's when I realized just how serious the situations these guys were getting put in to.  

     On our way out of the city a couple of nights ago, I noticed some Marine dudes suiting up with night vision goggles.  I thought they were going on a night patrol.  The next day, I heard from several different sources that the marine team had been deployed that night to an area where a gang of about 70 guys had holed up with weapons and supplies and what not and that the marines had "removed" them.  Like I said earlier, the riff raff is either gone or dead.  Be it Marines cleaning out a gang presence, a humane worker who'd just come back from the 50th consecutive animal rescue trip to the cops from N.O. and all over the country doing whatever they're doing, everyone's still smiling.  They're making the best of a messed up situation.  It's truly inspiring.  I've even seen a German team roll in.  It looked like they flew in their own vehicles, they had German script on them.  When they rolled through, everyone stopped what they were doing in and just watched them drive by.  They had a determined, serious look on their faces.  There was one guy in particular that had the square face, short, blond hair and tiny sunglasses you'd expect to see in a crew like that.  It seemed like they and everyone around them believed in what they could do.  G— tells me that they looked like they were some kind of water crew.

 

     It's getting late, so I'm going to go.  Please feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you want, I may have missed some people.

 

Oh yeah, I somehow forgot to mention this.

 

It's just a little glimpse into how weird and Mad Max this has all gotten. 

 

I was contacted by a coworker who knows a guy who's son goes to Tulane.  The guy paid me $500 to smuggle his son's 4 Runner from the Tulane parking garage to Baton Rouge.  Since the City's closed to non essential personnel, I was in a unique sitaution.  I took the job, and now I'm 500 smackers richer.  It was funny.  Right outside the street leading to the parking garage was two humvees full of what appeared to be National Guard guys.  We went around the corner in a yellow Nextel van, and came out past them with a yellow Nextel van being followed by a Toyota 4-Runner!  Didn't even get stopped.  It's ok, my boss knew what we were doing.  Anyways, I'm trying to decide what my anti or pseudo hero name shoud be.  The Returner? Maybe The Reclaiminator or something... how 'bout an alias like... Max Jagger!?