Indiana... Day 2 (sort of)

Hello everyone!

I'm just setting this up now to keep everyone apprised of what's going on here in Indiana. There have been two of deployed here to Indiana, myself and Tracy from 2-1-1 in Colorado, to help field calls and collect and organize resource information related to the disaster that's going on here. If you're not familiar with what's been happening, here's an article describing the situation: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/16556102/detail.html You can also check out www.therepublic.com for the local goings on.

The first thing that struck me as we drove into Columbus was the piles of garbage on the sides of the road... the local trash collecters are going through and picking up the garbage that people are left with after cleaning out their flood-damaged homes. I also noticed a lake as we were driving up... then realized that there was a tree in the middle of it. That's when I realized that it was actually not a lake at all, but a field that had been completely flooded out.

It's been very stressful for the people here... the local 2-1-1 have been overwhelmed by this incident... many of them live in Columbus, which is actually relatively small, so while most of the people here are fine, they all know of someone who has been affected by the flooding, some of whom have lost EVERYTHING. The local staff people here have been working like crazy since Monday without a chance to breathe and process the situation, so right now they are having a much needed debriefing session to help them collect thier thoughts before the craziness starts up again for today.

That's all for now... I'll update the next chance I get.

~Theresa