FEMA Exit Interview

As I've thought about all the hurricane poems I've written, I've gone to the blog to see how often I've posted them.  So, rather than repeat one, let me offer a new one here.

In the Asheville area, we're in a time period where lots of folks are applying for FEMA assistance.  I will likely not apply; we haven't had any damage, after all.

But in part, I won't apply because of how past hurricanes have shaped me.  We've had damage that wasn't covered by insurance, so I applied for FEMA money.  Each time, each hurricane, we were turned down because we had insurance.  Different administrations, same result.

In 2017, after Hurricane Irma, we applied for assistance, and even though we were turned down, I still had an exit interview.  My memory is that it was a phone interview.  Did I know it was an exit interview?  Did I complete it hoping there was a chance of some money?  Probably.

It was later, after seeing how the poet Oliver de la Paz transformed screening questions for autism into a poem, that I thought about doing the same with the FEMA exit interview.  I probably gave a simple answer to the question that begins the poem, the lack of money and supplies answer.

I have other hurricane poems that I like better.  But this one might be one of the more honest hurricane poems I've ever written

FEMA Exit Interview



“What factor has been most important
In your inability
To fully recover?”


a. Lack of money

b. Lack of supplies

c. Your inability to find a contractor or other workers

d. Your insurance company has been non-responsive

e. Your mortgage company is a cosigner and has unreasonable requirements before they will release the funds from the insurance company

f. Not wanting to invest any more resources in this house that has betrayed you

g. Your exhaustion

h. Your irrational fear of the phone

i. All of your friends have decided to move and you cannot make any decisions because of your mournful state

j. You realize you have made a dreadful mistake by moving to the coast in a time of sea level rise

k. This house was the cornerstone of your retirement plans, and the storm has made you realize that these plans are untenable and you don’t want to invest more into this sunk cost, but if you don’t invest the money, you will never sell the house, and your sunk cost will be lost forever

 

Hurricane Helene Breaking Points

One week ago, I would be sitting in the dark.  I would have gotten up early, as I always do, and when I made the coffee, I thought, let me make this now, before the power goes out.  But I didn't expect the power to go out so early.  I didn't think it would still be out a week later, at least not back a week ago when the lights first went out.

I had just made this Facebook post at 3:27 a.m., when I got up to check on the progress of the storm:  "Why I could never be a forecaster for the National Hurricane Center. I would say something like, "Hurricane Helene is in Flannery O'Connor country now. Beware of odd men in black cars, Helene. If a Bible salesman tries to seduce you, just keep going. You're in strange territory now, but you'll emerge able to tell stories of grace and salvation in new and terrifying ways."

The power went out, and I sat there for a few minutes.  I went to get a flashlight, and then I assembled our other battery run lights, which are mostly strings of fairy lights.  Happily, we have lots and lots of AA batteries to keep them running:

I've had a few breaking points along the way.  It's surreal to be experiencing a hurricane so far inland.  But we've done this before, and we know what to do and how to endure.  I felt a brief moment of panic the first time that water didn't come out of the tap.  But I reminded myself that other communities aren't impacted, and I can get to them to buy what I need.

My latest gulp/grief moment came last night when I looked up ways to get to Bristol, Tennessee, where I usually preach and preside on Sundays.  I saw a post that said the most direct way, across I 26, would be closed until March of 2025.  I tried to find information on alternate routes.

Not for the first time, I wish I had a paper map.  But even a paper map won't tell me which roads are washed away.  I can't find a website that tells me either--and yes, I've gone to the obvious ones, and they tell me the information might not be accurate because roads may have been washed away.

I will not be making the trip this Sunday.  We are still being asked to stay off those roads, which may or may not be there, so that emergency crews and restoration teams can get to where they are needed.  I will try making the trip next week-end, and then I'll see what the future brings.

Hurricane Helene Aftermath: The Overview

I don't have time to write a long post today.  I'm at a friend's house who has power, water, and internet, which I don't have at my house.  I need to make the most of this time with those things to catch up on seminary work, get some grading done for my online classes, and then I need to do some shopping and banking before heading up the mountain on Friday.

Last Friday, we lost electric at 4:30 a.m.,  as I was writing a blog post about how I didn't expect to suffer many effects from Hurricane Helene beyond some additional rain.  I didn't worry too much until a few hours later when trees started to fall.

Hurricane Helene's Position when the Power Went Out

We are fortunate.  No trees fell on our property or our house, like the 3 that fell on a neighbor's house:

We have spent the last week trying to help our less fortunate neighbors.  

We haven't had much internet access and spotty cell phone service, so it's been good to have a purpose.

Yesterday I headed to a friend's house in Columbia.  I needed to get to a place that had power and enough cell phone service that I could use my phone as a hotspot.  Happily, last night her internet was restored.  Today I plan to write and grade and try to regroup.

Spartanburg Methodist College still doesn't have power, so I don't know if classes will resume on Monday as previously planned.  My friend has offered to have me come back next week, and I may take her up on it if SMC doesn't have power.  I will need to do some additional class work, both for my seminary classes and the online classes that I teach.

I am still stunned by this storm.  I still find it surreal that I moved hundreds of miles inland and still found myself in this situation, and I'm still surprised, as I always am, that a tropical storm strength event can do this amount of damage.  I am hopeful that this will be a once a century storm, and I won't have to see this kind of storm in the mountains again.  But I am also suffering under no delusions that past planetary performance can predict future performance.

But let me once again stress that overall, I am in good spirits.  I know that I am lucky:  I have friends, family, support, a great neighborhood, resources of all kinds.

What I was writing when the power went out on Friday morning, Sept. 27

If there wasn't a huge hurricane to our south, I'd be making last preparations for a trip to Williamsburg, where I'll be leading workshops during my mom's women's group at St. Stephen Lutheran Church.  I'm still hoping to get there today, but I'll wait to leave until later in the morning--or perhaps even noon or 1.

I woke up an hour ago and wondered if I should go ahead and leave.  Now I am very glad that I didn't.  The rain sounds intense.  As I thought about leaving, I reminded myself that I didn't want to be on the road trying to outrun the storm when the storm arrived.

It's been raining steadily since Wednesday night.  I am still thinking we will be O.K. in terms of flooding. We are not near any rivers.  The rain will run down our hill.  I am glad that I am not in charge of Wal-Mart, which is down the hill beneath us, surrounded by non-porous surfaces.

We do have high winds in our forecast, and I do worry about the trees staying upright in the saturated soil.  I don't see that we can do much about that.

Yesterday I went down the mountain to Spartanburg Methodist College.  I had a day of student conferences planned, and the thought of rescheduling 30 students just made my head hurt.  As I was driving down, more than once I thought about the stupidity of my choice.  This morning, I reminded myself of how I felt yesterday, how I resolved not to leave for Williamsburg until full daylight--daylight behind clouds, but daylight.

It was a quiet morning on campus, but most of my students did come for morning interviews.  I sent an e-mail and follow up phone calls to the 8 students with an afternoon conference because I knew that weather conditions would deteriorate.  I was back on the road by 12:45.

Hurricane Watching and Other Types of Observations

It's the part of the week and the part of the term when I feel a bit squeezed.  Let me record some bits and pieces.

--Because we now have Disney Plus, we watched Frozen Tuesday night.  It's a cultural artifact that I almost completely missed, aside from a few songs.  I wanted it to be more progressive, but wow, there are some problematic aspects:  Disney princess culture really has not evolved.  And lots of men putting hands on young women whether they say yes or not.  Hmmm.

--We watched Hamilton on Sunday and Frozen Tuesday night, and I had songs from both soundtracks going in my head all night as Tuesday moved into Wednesday. 

--I went to the public library Tuesday, and I thought about how delightful it must be to work in my local public library.  The staff always seems pleasant, and as I said to my spouse, people who hate books don't come to this public library.  The branch always has kids there who are so enthusiastic about books and reading.

--The last thing I need is one more possible career path as I age, but I did think that if my other career/job/money making possibilities don't work out, I'd be delighted to work in that library.  I don't want to get an MLS degree, but maybe they hire less credentialed staff for less pay.

--I have been making my own greeting cards, with sketches on old sketchbook pages (a spiral notebook that has been too bashed in to be a good sketchbook). 

I have taken to enclosing a fabric heart or a fabric angel into the cards--an extra stamp, and I hope extra delight.

I got an assortment of colored envelopes which delights me. Such simple joys, and I'm so happy that simple joys still bring me such delight.

--Knowing the delight that different colors brings me, I also got some colored index cards, and when my students come for conferences, I give the a midterm grade report on a colored index card.  The colors are random, except for the orange ones when work is missing.  It's a good system so far.

--I don't always know for sure that conferences are a good use of time, but some of my students who are missing work did seem to snap to immediate attention at that orange index card.  We'll see if it results in work being done.

--I am keeping my eye on Hurricane Helene.  I am so glad that we no longer own a house in a flood zone.  I am a bit concerned about weather conditions when I travel to Williamsburg on Friday.

--It has been raining, with intense bursts, for 12 hours now, and that's not even Helene.  If you came here hoping for some spiritual insights that come with storm prep, head over to this post on my theology blog.

--And speaking of rain, let me get ready to head down the mountain.  From 7-8:30, we have light rain forecast.  Spartanburg Methodist College has moved to remote operations on Friday, and today I have lots and lots of conferences scheduled.  If I had classes scheduled, I'd move them to online today too, but this many conferences would be impossible to reschedule.  It's easier to just go in.

--Many public schools are not in person for the rest of the week, so maybe the traffic won't be too bad. 

Seeing "Hamilton" on TV

I don't have much writing time this morning, in that typical Monday way not a crisis kind of way, but I did want to note that I watched Hamilton yesterday.  I have wanted to see this show for years, but the timing was wrong or the money was wrong.

I watched the show on Disney Plus, which I realize is different than seeing it live.  It does have the advantage of being able to see all the expressive faces of the performer, an aspect that I imagine is lost in a live theatre, at least for the tickets that I can afford.

I also imagine that the lyrics might have been difficult to decipher in a live theatre.  One person nearby coughs, and everyone around that person has lost a chunk of lyrics.  I thought I might have problems, but I didn't, except for one rapid fire sequence.

I don't always like musicals where everything is sung.  I prefer the now old-fashioned kind of musical, where people burst into song periodically.  I also worried about the rap aspect, since that's not a musical form that's as familiar to me as other types of music.  I didn't have any problems.

It was a mesmerizing show, an interesting take on the U.S. Revolution, the fight for independence from England.  I loved that King George III was a character, and so funny.  There were so many moments of humor all along that I didn't expect.  It was such rich content, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for days and weeks to come.

I'd still like to see it live.  But it's wonderful to have this opportunity.  It makes me wonder if there are other Broadway shows that got this kind of transition to film.  I hope we get more, because not everyone lives in the path of those Broadway touring companies.

In the meantime, I may watch it again.

Seventh Covid Shot, with Flu Shot and Disney Plus

When I got home from work yesterday, my spouse and I went over to the Ingle's pharmacy (for those of you who are far away, Ingles is our local grocery store; we get our shots there because we get fuel points which gives us a tank of gas at a much reduced price).  Finally the new Covid shots are here, and we were ready.  As always, I try to get the shot on a Friday, when I don't have to travel/teach/preach the next day, just in case I have an adverse reaction.

So far, my left arm is sore, and that's it.  I got a flu shot in my right arm, and it's hardly sore at all.  I did some searching of the blog, and I don't think I noted a flu shot last year.  I think I got my flu shot and Covid shot at separate times, because we had Covid in September.  I think I got my 2023 flu shot near Halloween last year, and then my Covid shot in late December, which I did write a blog post about.

I am so grateful for this protection--it's not perfect, but I have hopes that between these shots and my habits of avoiding masses of people, my chances of avoiding disease are much better and having a less severe version if I do get it goes up.

We came home and got Disney Plus set up.  At some point this week-end, I need to watch the filmed version of Hamilton for my Monday seminary class, and Disney Plus is the only way to get it.  It's very affordable:  $1.99 a month for the first three months, and $9.99 after that.  I could also add a few dollars and get Hulu bundled into it--more viewing options.  But for now, we just went with the version of Disney Plus that comes with ads.

When I was thinking about this, I thought that I wouldn't find much to see on Disney Plus.  But then we discovered the 34 seasons of The Simpsons.  We haven't seen the last few years,  since we don't have much access to regular network TV--the antenna doesn't work well up here in the mountains.

So, we'll see how much we use the service.  We have a Roku stick, which first seemed to offer an abundance of riches.  As we've watched through the past two years, it's clear that much of the content is old and not updated, which is fine.  It's been fun seeing old shows that we've loved--and it's been interesting to see how those old shows that are still ongoing don't have the later seasons.

In some ways, I don't care.  I don't watch much TV.  But it's also irritating.  To find anything to watch, one must look through hundreds of channels.  We've used the My Favorites way of organizing, but by now, we've seen just about everything on those channels which are on a long-running loop.

So, as I said, it will be interesting to see if our viewing habits change.  There are movies and shows that aren't available on Amazon or Roku, our habitual streaming/viewing sources.  It will be good to have more options.

And I'm really looking forward to finally seeing Hamilton!