September 2008 - As Gustav Approaches

I am writing the September blog a few days early since we’ve got the Labor Day weekend coming up. Gustav is moving toward the Gulf of Mexico and seriously threatens to wreak havoc on some portion of the Gulf Coast early next week. What it means for staff at the Bay Area Food Bank, as well as those at the food banks in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houston and farther west, is a frantic effort to get our warehouses organized to jump into action as soon as Gustav makes its eventual landfall known. It also means staff members will be participating in conference calls through the weekend with State and Local Emergency Management networks to continue to plan for direct relief, should the storm impact locally, or support to our neighbors should the storm make landfall outside our service area.
While the storm tracks are very sketchy at this point, it looks like our warehouse, (and my house!) are at the eastern edge of the probable path. But, our service area stretches another 100 miles west, which makes it much more likely winds will impact portions of our area and thousands of people will be on the roads moving out of the strike zone. I’ve been exchanging warehouse status reports, contact numbers and plans with the directors of the other coastal food banks as well as the staff in the national office so everyone can be as ready as possible. Meanwhile, the staff has been busy distributing shelter supplies, topping off the tanks on all vehicles, clearing space for the arrival of emergency supplies and going through checklists to ensure we leave the warehouse Friday afternoon ready to jump into action once the storm passes, probably Tuesday.
The threat of a storm causes financial loss even if there is no direct damage to property and that’s one of the challenges we always face following a storm. Thousands of hourly workers will be forced to pack their family in a car, travel 300 or 400 miles inland and spend three or four days away waiting to return. Not only does this mean lost wages, it means hundreds of dollars for meals, gas and lodging. Evacuation for a storm can easily cost $500 at the same time a working couple loses $500 in wages. For a great number of people, this places them in tough financial straights and in the coming weeks we can expect the volume of requests for food from the church pantries that form the bedrock of support to increase.
Next week, you can expect an update telling you what Gustav has meant to us here along the Central Gulf Coast. It may find us busy serving local citizens. We may have staff shifted to a neighboring food bank. Or, we may all be happily poking fun at weather forecasters for missing the mark after a minor storm comes quietly ashore. We’re planning for the worst but hoping for the best.