Life as a "Refugee"

Kind of tonge in cheek but I am living in a "camp". I got to the Houston area on Friday and have not been able the find a motel room within 30 miles of the area I'm working. I'm working in Baytown, TX, about 16 miles east of downtown. Another inspector turned me on to a camp that FEMA has set up just west of Beaumont, TX for all the disaster workers.

This place in crawling with all kinds of people. Mostly from all over the US and some local crews.
Lots of forestry crews (go figure?) plus security companies, inspectors, utility crews, FEMA teams and hundreds of truckers and the big rigs they came in.

The comp itself is designed to hold 2000 people. It consists of about eight big "gang" sleeping tents that hold several hundred each, a huge "mess tent"where they serve three meals a day, dozens of very nice shower trailers, about 100 "porta potties" , a laundry tent with about 100 washers and dryers and 24/7 security. It seems every third. person has a gun!

The great thing about this is that it's all free for the disaster workers. I'm not having to spend $200-$300a week on a hotel and I get a nice hot breakfast every morning before I leave.
The down side is that it is about a 1/2mile walk to the parking area and 50 + miles from Baytown. I'll take the good with the bad though. The rental car I have gets 32 mpg so it works out in the long run.

Well, it's 10:15 'time to hit the hay
Later,
Dana