We were hit first!
We were hit out there close to Rockport
That was ground zero
Some of these people. All of these people that are here were deployed and they're going to tell you the stories of what they saw out there
and when I went out there, there was devastation.
Before, it had already left here. So people had already started coming into our offices to request food stamps.
So we started getting a bunch of people in our offices
So Sam, right here, had to start deploying staff to assist in some of our offices because we had long lines.
This was before even D-SNAP
I had been through hurricanes before before but never
had I seen anything to the magnitude of what Harvey did
did to us and the recovery we had to go through
and from my understanding later, I found out we had never actually gone through D-SNAP.
This was the first D-SNAP application that we had in our regions.
So when we started seeing those long lines,
It was just people fainting out there in Corpus Christi.
It was really sad to see everything that was going on
And all of the low-lying homes were under water
And it was devastating to drive two blocks and you can't go any further
because everything from there to the freeway was submerged and I'm having to see all these people just
basically standing at the edge of the water because they can't get to them
But I was relieved to see
so many
people from the outside come to do rescues or whoever had a boat
they came and they docked, and they went to these houses and rescued these people.
It's really good to see everybody just
dropped all of their attitudes and behaviors and they did what they had to do to save lives.
That was very, very touching.
It just touched me so much to just be able to be there and to help them in any way I possibly can.
So that we can get this
You know, get this taken care of, and get them taken care of
To lose your house is one thing but when you lose your house and all the groceries in your house, that's terrible.
You know, we can't give them their house back,
but just being there to offer D-SNAP and being there to serve them.
I learned a lot in life.
You never know what tomorrow brings.
You know, you can't help but have compassion for the people after they've been through something like this
because it did appear like a tornado just ripped through the entire area and
These are human beings that had a home today and then tomorrow they have nothing, you know
I think that RAS for the most part they definitely
went in and and we did the best that we could and we helped everyone that we could
The lines were long, days and hours were long, but at the end of the day
you were tired, but knowing that you fulfilled, helped someone else, definitely made it worthwhile
I'm proud of him, and grateful for him
I'm proud of you!
To work on alongside someone, you know it's just... People just do things out of the kindness of their heart
It got the best out of all us. I mean we did. I mean since we couldn't go on help our neighbors
We did what we could do to help the community
Texas Works employees came here
We heard them on the phone talking to people that had problems with their Lone Star card and getting their benefits
And they were so very professional and so very nice
I mean there were people that seriously cried as they left
and they thanked us and
as for me I was like "I didn't really do anything but you're quite welcome."
and we just move them along. But we learned to work with a team and a program
That we were used to working
amongst ourselves. And with the facilities as Tony and Karen have said, you know, but we really learned to
listen to the people and incorporate that into what we were doing, and get along with everybody.
Bexar County kind of let us do our own thing,
and then they at first we were just doing ice and water
Then they gave us a responsibility to track their MREs, which are meals that are ready to eat for their
emergency management teams, and then their fuel trucks so
over time we were tracking fuel and then dispatching fuel trucks to go fill up 18 wheelers.
There was about 14 of us
doing that task. We had one person that was in charge of shifts from seven to one
With an assistant and the second half from one to seven nine days straight
starting August 25th to September 2nd
they were
12 hour shifts that slowly ran into 14-hour shifts
trying to make sure everything was in order for the next day
It took a lot of footwork from us as a team, Region 08. I was really proud of our
department as a whole everyone was, you know, really excited and willing to step up.
The best thing was AES
got to really see what RAS does
We got to really see what they do
They kind of had a better appreciation of what RAS actually does and some of them
even said I don' t think we could have made it without y'all.
I think it was an eye opener for RAS and for AES
That don't mean that nobody got upset.
and didn't have to check some folks
that's just the reality of what you do
you get frustrated sometimes
you're trying to sort some of these things out
sometimes you have to get upset
We came back together and let it slide
we made it work
We were celebrating, we were celebrating something
at the end of the day we said you guys let's go celebrate. Let's go have dinner.
Let's have a celebration dinner because this is the end of our ten day stint
We're going home
and on about that time I get a call from Raul, saying
Guess what, anyone want to go Houston?
And everybody to their credit. Everybody got together. I said I'm not going to make a decision for the team
We were here as a team. We'll decide as a team and every single person said
"We're ready to go wherever they need us."
Rick and I went to Greenspoint.
Y'all stopped along the way to wash your clothes, right?
We had to stop because we didn't know where we were going.
Let's stop and do laundry.
In Wharton, so there we are doing our laundry and waiting, and waiting.
And you know that story reminds me of the movie, you know that you and I are big movie buffs,
the movie, The Martian
Remember when when they had that discussion when they all sit at the table and she says I can't make the call for us to go back.
Yeah, I feel like you've all of you guys said "when do we go" and "when do we leave?"
It was a little like Mars but a little bit more dangerous.
It was September 11 when I flew down here and the staff from El Paso started driving down
They they had a 22 hour drive. It shouldn't take that long but they had
vans
and trailers attached to the to the vans, and then they had problems with their fleet cards
where they weren't being able to gas up and they they had to call. And so we had to increase the limits
of how many times they can gas up. So all those issues
created a 22-hour drive for the first staff from El Paso that came down
I stayed here in Beaumont the whole month.
I just went back for a personal wedding that I had to attend
I went back for two days
but
It was tough, you know
dealing with both regions but Region 10 also has very good staff
and, have two good managers there. And all the staff that really kept
Region 10 going while I was here. I didn't have to worry so much about Region 10 while I was here.
but
What I faced was nothing compared to what the staff here faced, you know dealing with a disaster
Dealing with being at work at D-SNAP, trying to restore offices, and then having to deal with your own disasters at home
It's really not a hardship it was hard being away from home
It's nothing compared to what y'all went through
or even though the team from El Paso that came down to help,
we had also people from
Lubbock that came down
and from Region 04, from Tyler and elsewhere assisted
The people from El Paso were so willing to come. They were just very willing
to come down and assist. And when they went back and we
we found out there's another D-SNAP coming
I remember
Harriet saying try to hit other regions. Don't don't just rely on El Paso. But when I
asked if they wanted to go back for D-SNAP
they were the first ones to volunteer they wanted to come back. So they did a second round of D-SNAPs.
I would say, that your question is what kind of hardships?
It was a hardship being away from home. but nothing compared to what people here suffered.
This group has always been
and I'm talking RAS in general not just everybody here. This has always been a great team
But this
event strengthened that bond between teams.
I think everybody became a lot closer
I don't think anybody could say that they didn't get closer.
We felt for every single one out there. We felt a lot for
Beverly when she was going through what she was going through
So, It's a family.
Bottom line.
I think the person, and I have to say, they got the greatest joy
was Mr. Chris Adams. He is definitely deemed our
Golf Cart King
I mean he came in, and he just took such joy and
it did something in such a positive way for the
staff to see that he was out there having fun helping, enjoying helping
We spent more time with our co-workers than with our families
generally speaking, It's about eight hours a day.
So we know our co-workers pretty well.
Well now we're talking about 16 and 18 hours a day
In an environment where it's not air conditioned and you know how it is
Thank you Mr. Trevino for putting that very eloquently
I remember Marlene telling me don't get close, you don't want to smell me
I said you should smell me!
Definitely grateful for Region 10
for bringing in bodies
and they told us the number of D-SNAP
locations that will be activated, and there was like all seven of us
that were trying to do everything
They came to our aid like Superman.
I reached out to Brenda and I was like, okay
we're rolling out D-SNAP locations and
I want financial services to go to some of the locations and
and so we would, I think, a few of them went to Pasadena
on the
weekend and which two locations did you go to?
I went to Pasadena to start with and then they were they were kind of at a point where they had enough people.
So I ended up going for Pasadena out to Rosenberg. Picked up trash and I cleaned up and just did whatever
the folks, the BSOs out there who were in charge asked me to do and if I couldn't find anything
I just go out and pick up water bottles.
Just anything to help because they were, they were exhausted
they were doing a great job, but they were tired.
One of the things Financial services, and nobody ever said this is not my job
It was always what else? Okay. What else? OK, we've done this. What else do we need to do?
How can we support this effort to the best of our abilities?
So I think that's one of the things that put pulled this together and like I can't say enough
When our other regional family RAS members came in they hit the ground
I don't care if it was seven o'clock at night when they were when they were get here
They hit the ground and it was going and it was on.
The whole time, and I think that was like one of the challenges.
One thing I noticed says, you know,
there's really, there's Business, there's Financials
and there's the RAS. Everybody came together as a team.
Because once we were able to get out there, and start assessing the facilities and start cleaning up
facilities like
Executive, it doesn't matter if you're an accountant.
Or you're a Financial manager. Everybody and the RD's Admin. Everybody was up there assisting.
D-SNAP brings people from different places.
I was walking by and there was a Texas Works person working, and she said
"You, do you work with RAS?"
I said "Yes I do."
"Can you bring me a water, bottled water please?"
"Get it to you in a minute."
So, I was about to do something. Take care of something.
And then on my way back I grabbed a bottle of water and dropped it off for her. Cold ice water.
"Thank you"
So later that evening, you know, I was meeting with the AES RD and
Todd Byrnes
and some of the other AES staff was there
and we were all talking
the lady looks at me and says "who are you?"
I presented myself. "I'm your RAS RD."
"I'm so sorry I asked you for water."
"No problem. That's what we do. That's what we're for."
You know because at that time it didn't matter.
Positions didn't matter. Everybody was taking care of something.
Whatever needed to be done, we got done.
We all learned to lean on each other.
It's been a beautiful experience.
There's no "I" in "TEAM"
There's no "ME" in "TEAM" and I love it, because we all come together and do this together.
And we're still doing it.
Still doing it.
Leaning on each other for strength.
And sometimes we get tired, but we still push
But I think God that
The teams from other regions came.
Oh, yeah
We can't say enough about them
We got multiple of us, just a little help that we got, you know, I think I met someone...
We got a lot of help
How can we do less than the people who come and help us? There's no way.
San Antonio, I met people from, probably never see them again, but it was very nice.
I mean they just jump in, and there wasn't no "uhhh."
You know, everybody just had their teamwork attitude
and they jumped in and just helped wherever they could.
It was nice.
You know, I really really enjoyed that
To see us come together as one and just work together for the same purpose and get it done.
We'll probably see them again at the RAS conference.
Yes.
San Antonio
Hey, remember us?
I'll tell you something. Never have I been prouder of anybody. Than what I saw this RAS Team do.
Because this RAS Team stepped up to the plate.
And they wouldn't take defeat as an answer.
They would find a way to get things done.
But it wasn't just the RAS staff. It was the ability to work as a Team.
Together
The ability to work with our Texas Works staff
with DPS
the EMS, with all those people who came out to assist us.
Together we were able to provide the support that was so needed for all those Texans out there.
The whole thing is
pulling together and I think
this RAS conference is going to be
The best because it's going to encompass the sense of what our division is and that's a team and a family
And, and and coming together to celebrate this great accomplishment and victory. It's gonna make it really special
Whatever time you need us.
It was great. I would do it again.
I Would...
I would rather not repeat it, but I couldn't think of a better group of people to go through a disaster with.
Yeah
Since you survived it you're glad you went through it, right?
Yes
Yes. Good deal.
We don't want another one.
No. We're good!
We're good!
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