Day 5: Hazmat Day

Saturday. I can't even begin to think of where to start as far as stories today. There were so many things that happened and a lot of really good stories.

This morning we woke up at 6:45 and were ushered out the door at 7:15 to make it to the 7:30 meeting at the shelter. We met with the shelter manager and were updated about recent goings on in the shelter including the fact that the elevator was no longer working and we were moving the people in the isolation room (who have Noro) downstairs in to a more enclosed and isolated room. This means that everything had to be moved. I'll tell a Story about that a little bit later.

When Jenna Holly and I woke up this morning we knew that we would be working on cots all day today. So we dressed as warmly as we could and then headed out to work on more cots. We had a super efficient system and were able to get a lot done in the time that we worked on them today. We did take a break to go inside and get warm but most of the morning was spent outside. I was able to talk a lot with Holly while we were taking down and packing cots which was really cool. That was the start of some of the random things that we would do together that day.

Dave, our supervisor helped us work outside today. Which we appreciated a lot. It helped us get things done faster since he was an extra pair of hands. Demarco also helped throughout the day and that was super helpful.

We took a break for lunch at about 1 and were able to meet up with Dani and Crystal before hand to take a few pictures and have a group hug. It was pretty funny and I am glad we documented it.

We aren't usually if ever able to eat meals with Crystal because she is in dorms and they rotate lunch shifts which means that she usually eats by herself. It was nice to talk and laugh with her and have her there. She is doing a great job in dorms and I am sure they all appreciate her there.

After lunch we worked in the room on the lower floor that was going to be changed into the special needs / isolation room. We cleaned out all the boxes and threw away quite a bit of trash. It was so nice to be inside for a while.

Our friend Demarco has a brother name Berry who is also here as a volunteer. Berry had very extreme chest pains earlier today and the paramedics came to take him to the hospital to make sure he was okay. There was some initial concern that it may have been a heart attack but it was just a pulled muscle. It was a pretty scary experience at first as we searched for Demarco so that he could go with his brother to the hospital. They have been trying to keep better care of all the staff because that was the 2nd of 3 injuries that would take place within 24 hours.

After that scare we all headed out to work on cots. Leina who is our supervisor for logistics came out and said that she had a project for us that would bring us inside for a little bit and hopefully warm up. We quickly agreed and started following her inside the building. When we got inside she began explaining that the Hazmat team came through and wiped down what had been the isolation room and that we needed to clean the small bathroom tent and two portable toilets so that they could be used again for the next isolation room. We were fairly disappointed that we were assigned to walk in to a room that less than a few hours ago had been drenched in the Noro virus and touch 3 objects that most certainly came in contact with the virus to take them outside and wash them. Dang. We were also told that it was safe to go inside without any additional protective gear besides latex gloves.

Genevieve, you may want to skip over the next paragraph.

So we walked in to the room and started gathering stuff and moving things out of the way so that we could get the items out if we needed to. It smelled pretty nasty and so we tried to hurry so we would not have to be in there for very long. We grabbed one toilet which had been emptied of its contents, but the next one had not. Yuck. So we took the one toilet and the tent while another last cleaned the other toilet. We went outside trying really really hard not to touch anything and sprayed down both items with A LOT of Lysol. Then I went back inside to try and get the other toilet but was told that I could not go in to the room without having a protective gown on because it was still infected. Say what!? So I talked to Holly who had just walked up to tell her what was said and then Leila came up as well. We discussed the situation and then she asked Holly and me to go ahead and put on the gowns and everything so that we could go in, get the toilet and also spray down any and all cots in the room. Dang. We went outside and grabbed lots of Lysol, trash bags, and towels. Then we put on our lovely gowns (see image below) grabbed some face masks and headed in. It was all pretty nasty. We sprayed down all the cots and then took them outside to be sprayed again. We passed so many people in the hallway and their facial expressions ranged from pure fear to being on the verge of uncontrollable laughter at how we looked. It didn't take too long to finish the job and we laughed through most of it. Then we carefully took everything off used a ton of hand sanitizer and went downstairs to eat dinner.

There is a little girl in the shelter who is probably only about 3 years old but she is extreme friendly. She will sit on anybody's lap and LOVES to give high fives. I saw her at least twice today which was really fun!

After dinner I headed over to the bathrooms and on my way out found an older lady with another older lady who was in a wheel chair. They asked for help getting in to the shelter so I helped open a door and then push her in. They asked if I could continue to help her and I so I pushed her over to the stall and then waited for her to finish. She is very much a talker And I ended up spending the next 45 minutes with her. She talked almost the entire time but I appreciated it. She told me that she had been trying to locate her "husband"(they arent married) for several days but had been unable to. I guess that they had recently been separated for a couple weeks since he was sent to a hospital and then To rehab for injuries that he has sustained during the storm. About 3/4 of the way through the phone call she told him that she loved him, missed him so much and in an awesome New York accent said "and you know what, I think we should get married"! It was adorable. There were about 5 people standing in the area, including Dani, who turned to look at her with a dropped jaw but a smile on their face. It was adorable!

While that lovely conversation was going on there was also a couple of situations happening by the information and registration desk. One younger man who was trying to get in to the shelter didn't qualify for assistance and so he was really upset. He said that he wanted to use the restroom and so Alex our head security guard (who was in special ops in the military) had to escort him to and from the bathroom. When they came back the guy started to put his sweaters and jackets back on and Alex was standing about 5 feet away because the man had been yelling and cussing quite a bit earlier. After about 30 seconds the guy turned around and kept asking Alex to "step back, please". Alex didn't move because he wasn't really in his space at all and the guy got more and more mad. Britt (another staff guy) was sent to get the police and the man kept pushing the threats higher and higher. He was definitely looking for a fight. The cops came and they surrounded the guy with one of them holding the door open so that he could leave. With a lot more yelling and cussing he eventually left the building.

The other issue going down by information was this homeless lady who came in asking that we let her take a shower. Obviously there are a lot of security issues with letting anybody in to the shelter who isn't staff or clients. So it eventually escalated to the Shelter Manager and he came out and talked with her and tried to help her settle down since she had been yelling as well. He left during the whole police showdown with the young man and she just sat in the lobby and yelled at anyone who tried to talk to or help her. I grabbed her a chair to sit on, but she didn't want any help with Anything. I'm not sure what eventually happened with her.

After I got back to the shelter I showered, which was so incredibly nice after all that went down yesterday. I played a few card games and talked with the guy named Britt who is incredibly nice and friendly but a pinch weird. He had been just kind of wandering around so I invited him to play. It was fun and I think he appreciated it. He trains service dogs at home in Washington.

All the girls and I sat up chatting for a whole and then we headed to bed. It was a super busy crazy day but so good!