Hurry Up and Wait!

Nothing much to report, still sitting on my butt in Dallas. It looks like FEMA was not taking any chances this time and loaded in a lot of resources in the form of personnel. Most of use are now sitting around cooling our heels in various Hotels around the area.

They have launched a few (about 100) experienced inspectors to Louisiana but the rest of us are still hanging loose. It appears that most of the damage was east of Texas and not as bad as originally though.

The inspections are actually not done by FEMA directly but by Contractors. There are two Disaster Inspection contractors, PaRR and Parsons-Brinkerhoff and both companies are manning up this Gustav storm. There in lies the tail I think. There are issues with FEMA co-ordinating who is going to be doing which area. There is some political infighting I think, these are lucrative contracts for both companies and they are fighting over the areas. This is also a very expensive operation for the contractors and ultimately FEMA and the tax payer.
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to have all of us standing by and not really producing anything. It also costs the inspectors since we are "sub-contractors" and responsible for our own expenses like rental car, lodging and food. At this point, I'm "upside down" with more money paid out than taken in. Not good! If they cut us loose today or tomorrow, I loose money on this whole thing and will need to take a long look at doing this again.

It might pay off in the long run though. I've met many people here, both men and women, that do this as a full time career. There is substantial money to be made in a fairly short time. The down side is the waiting game, living out of a suitcase, being away from home and family and the out of pocket expenses until you are actually deployed to actually do inspections.
As a "newbie" at this, my chances of getting sent out this time are slim. If I do not get sent out, I take a loss and have to do it again, hoping to get out in the field and get some experience.

There are a number of aspects to this game to consider. The pay potential is great IF you go out. It is conceivable that you could make $10,000 to $20,000 or more in a few weeks. This could buy some "coasting time" back at home between deployments. Given that FEMA deals with fire, floor, storms, earthquakes and any other disaster, it is possible to work 3-4 deployments per year and make 6 figures. Not too bad for a few months work.

Stay Tuned, more later.