Short entry today– late night setting up a central information repository for all the information centers– see recent posts from siderea, our CMS manager.
Basic identification is done by wristbands: orange for volunteers, pink for Astrodome residents, blue for Reliant Center residents, plus less common colors. This means that if you lose your wristband, you become a non-person. I spent most of yesterday trying to set up a system for evacuees to get replacement wristbands without re-registering, if you can get a Red Cross escort to the Astrodome, and today the system is widely known and officially endorsed. Fascinating.
Security seems to be getting worse. My first night, I walked all the way into one of the main buildings (the Reliant Center) without a hassle. Today they almost wouldn’t let me in, even with my volunteer wristband. There are guards at each entrance, and the number of army people seems to have increased geometrically over the past couple days. About 20 people showed up today to get in, and they were all going to be turned away. One had open lesions on his legs from walking in the water, and it took an hour to get him in. Three of us, including one Red Cross volunteer woman tried to get the group accept in and were told that under no circumstances was anyone being admitted. Later, though, a white male red cross volunteer came, said, “I’m taking these with me.” to the guard, and marched them over to registration.
Inside buildings, my little volunteer wristband is getting me fewer places too. Yesterday a Red Cross person asked me to set something up for him, and when I showed up today to do it at a time when he didn’t happen to be around, I was looked at like a criminal and sent back to the intro volunteering room.