Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Flood 2008 - Part 6

Okay.... this morning started off well. And ended.... not as well, but still not too bad.


I got to the EOC at about 10am after getting almost 8 hours of sleep.


Overnight, I became a manager and primary point of contact for a team of (4) web developers. We discussed possibilites and needs for the website and tried to setup a system of progress that would eventually leave us with possitive results. Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly.... mostly, they didn't go at all.


The new developers were attempting to use and setup their workstations to work with the current tools that I used to create the site. Unfortunately, they are all (more than less) corporate coders and use a system of tools that does not allow quick updates and immediate results. The day ended with not much production from the group and a game plan on how to make things work better tomorrow.


That wasn't really the bad part of the day.


To explain things quickly: Too many cooks in the pot. Or sometimes: too many road construction workers trying to bake the same souffle'.


Many things that we were given today were vamped, revamped, and re-revamped and then trashed because someone decided that it wasn't needed any longers.


To start the end of my day (at about 7:45)... they (some idiot) announced to the public (via a press conference) that the data flood-affected areas were going to be available online at 8:00 p.m. The problem was that no-one had even contacted me about the data.... which happened to be chicken-scratched notes that somewhat resembled a journal entry of a 9 year old.


To get quickly to the end of the day... it ended with me working directly with the chief-of-police (yes, the big-man himself) to sort through the data and cross reference it with spreadsheets that we would use for the website. You can see the quick-and-ugly result here: http://corridorrecovery.org/HomeReEntry.asp


The data will eventually (hopefully today -- which is really tomorrow) be put into a database that will allow users to sort and search for the address they want.


Anyhow... that process took until 3:30 a.m. So now, here I am leaving for the day. I have a meeting with some big-wigs in the morning at 8:30... so I hope I can get 3-4 hours of sleep tonight.


Pray for me... it looks like doors are being opened that we have been waiting for for a long time.


Good night.

3 comments:

Chipshot said...

LOve the blog!! Can you consider posting our info on corridor site??

Keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!

In consultation with Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, an NIEHS Worker training grantee, the National Institutes of Health (NIEHS) have just posted a 2008 Floods Resource Page on the NIEHS Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training Website.

We have developed a poster, as well as a booklet and a powerpoint tool for responders and returning homeowners.

http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/events.cfm?id=2458

Elan said...

The Lord will make a way for you. Hang in there and keep the faith.

Anonymous said...

Michael,

Thanks for keeping us updated. We appreciate the information; let's see what God does with this experience.

Grandpa D