Our time in Kansas City was short-lived upon being given the order to “head east” by our Unit Leader (Fritz—a.k.a., Papa Pine), on Halloween no less. We had been tracking Sandy prior to its formation as a superstorm, and let me tell you, sitting in (or sometimes listening in) on situation room updates about a real storm with real dangers puts a lot in perspective.

So, on Halloween day, we headed east, destination TBD. We eventually got word to stop in Dayton, Ohio, on standby until receiving further orders to head to our final destination—obviously somewhere affected by Sandy. And then we got it, after some initial confusion. Trenton, New Jersey.

On November 2nd we arrived in Trenton to meet up with FEMA Community Relations personnel—including other FEMA Corps teams that were reassigned to Sandy (pretty much all of them). From there, no less than two hours later, we began carrying out Community Relations (CR) operations around New Jersey. Assigned to Somerset and Union Counties, we were tasked with getting the word out about FEMA disaster assistance to as many affected residents as possible, mainly via door-to-door flyer distribution. Additionally, we reported* on local damage and did general wellness checks. Our CR mission lasted until November 18th.

As for the CR numbers, over a two week period our team visited a total of 3933 homes, 735 businesses, 19 schools, 7 local government offices, 27 churches, and talked to over 2400 people.

* As a part of the “AIR” Mission (immediately initiated upon arrival at a disaster location): (1) Assess: Provide ground truth and validate that the operational goals and priorities align with the most critical needs of disaster survivors. (2) Inform: Ensure disaster survivors have an understanding of and access to the full range of assistance available to support their recovery. (3) Report: Provide Operators and leadership with comprehensive, actionable summaries that identify needs and trends. (via)

Sidenote: We didn’t know where we would be staying until the very end of the day after arriving in New Jersey, when we discovered that all teams were to be housed at Fort Dix until further notice, which was to some extent already being used as a FEMA staging area for Hurricane Sandy (at least the Air Force Base part). Fort Dix was also housing hundreds of emergency response personnel from around the country, not to mention that it was—of course—an active military base. It was packed.

(Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of photos of our CR mission or time at Fort Dix.)

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