Tuesday - Vacation is Over

We are back today at noon. No more vacations until Christmas. Let's party together.

Seminoles out-last Hurricanes …What a great game this was that capped off a college football weekend for me that included watching 5 games:

TCU beat OU
Wisconsin barely beats Bowling Green
Clemson beats the Aggies at the final gun
Virginia Tech guts out a win at NC State in Marcus Vick’s first start,
and The Seminoles sack the Canes 9 times and win despite no QB.

Great to have College FB back if the games are going to be like those.

By the way, Best sign of Monday Night:

“Hurricanes” is an abusive and hostile nickname.

Obviously, a shot at the NCAA for trying to outlaw the Seminole nickname.

Bomar starts for Sooners this week …

Jerry Rice retires …and should make the Hall of Fame…

Crow and Armstrong are engaged …yippee…

Whataburger Rap …

Bid on Earl Campbell jersey for Hurricane relief …A good p1 is putting all proceeds to the relief effort…

This could make you crazy …

The Utah State Fair offers some Napoleon gold …make sure you watch the tv spots…

This is an email I got last night that I really enjoyed. I thought it provided some insight that I have not received elsewhere, and with P1 Reagan’s permission, I will reprint it for you:

Hi Bob,

I've e-mailed you a couple of times before (mostly related to soccer rants) but have never contacted you guys, or any other radio station for that matter, by phone, e-mail, etc. outside of what I just mentioned.

The reason I'm writing is to let you know that I volunteered for the Red Cross at the Dallas Convention Center (DCC) on Friday night - through Sat. morning (9:30ish p.m. to 11:00 a.m. the next morning). This e-mail is not meant in any way, shape or form to be a "look at me" kind of thing as I gave up one night of sleep while the survivors have given up everything. However, I believe there is a ton of misinformation as well as lack of information being spread through the media, and I hope you can relay some of this info on to your listeners in order to help them help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

I'm going to give a detailed review of my experience and leave it up to what (if any) info you feel necessary to pass on.
____________________________

This past Friday evening, I returned from a business trip in Houston. While my wife and I were watching CNN and feeling even more discouraged from the reports coming in, I told my wife "I've got to go do something". I should note here that we have a 2 year old son and my wife did just as much as I did by taking care of our son and allowing me to go help.

I drove downtown at 9:30ish p.m. to Reunion Arena and was turned away by Red Cross staff. They told me that I needed to get trained at their main office and that this couldn't happen until the next day.

I left, feeling discouraged, on my way home. I called my wife to tell her what had happed and she let me know that the Dallas Convention Center was also open for survivors and I might try there. I arrived at the DCC and drove to a barricade where I spoke with a Dallas police officer. I told him that I just wanted to help if possible. He showed me where to park my car and personally escorted me past the outside help into the DCC to the main Red Cross volunteer desk. They told me that of course they could use my help, got my info, gave me a shirt and put me right to work. This is an important point in that, in my opinion, the outside Red Cross workers really have no idea what's going on inside. This could obviously have changed since Friday night, but there was a definite lack of communication while I was volunteering (I think this is to be expected given the circumstances).

I was told that the first thing we would need to do would be to distribute beds to those survivors that were already there. This was the first main problem - we ran out of beds within the first hour (by 11:00 or so). So, I decided to just throw myself in the mix and see what I could do to help. I went around the convention center mingling with the survivors, praying with them, getting blankets for them (which we also ran out of almost immediately), and just hugging them.

Around 12:00 a.m., I was pulled to the medical area to sign in those needing medical attention. At this point I should point out that we were told 26 buses would be arriving that night (I'm not sure how many we actually serviced), and that they were coming straight from the Superdome in New Orleans. I.E. They had not received any medical attention at all.

This was the point where I had my 100% wake up call. We were swamped the entire night and I just praise God for the doctors and nurses that volunteered. The main problem that almost all the survivors were suffering from were foot infections. They were all standing in sewage for at least 24 hours in New Orleans and their feet looked like what you would see in a 3rd World Country Report. One man had to have his shoes literally cut off of his feet as they were so swollen. This along with massive rashes, lice, etc - all caused by the environment in which they lived for the past 4 days.

Next thing that was apparent - we were going through Pediolyte like water as all the children were incredibly dehydrated.

The Superdome: You hear a story once, you're a bit skeptical, you hear it for 8 hours, you become convinced. From the stories I heard, the Superdome was a living hell. It seems that the problems really started when some people broke into the suites on the 2nd story and found them fully stocked with alcohol. This is when the shootings and raping began (I checked in one 16 year old girl that had been raped and one man that was almost trampled to death at the Superdome). The point is, it was a full 4-day riot without any riot control - the National Guard simply left when the shootings began.

I have a million stories that I could tell you about the atrocities I heard about/witnessed, but I'd rather get on to the positives:

1. The survivors - We were wall-to-wall people, but yet I never witnessed one fight, never heard any yelling, and was simply overwhelmed by the "thank you's" that I received that night. These survivors have lost everything and yet they still will just smile at you, thank you, and hug you. In short, they are just wonderful people with incredible faith. All of them have been separated from family members, but their hope remains firm. I just can't believe how strong they are as human beings.

2. The support network - As far as I'm concerned, the National Guard was absolutely worthless and non-existent at the DCC. They all pretty much stayed in their back staging area. However, the local police, fire department volunteers, doctors and nurses were just unbelievable. I know we also had SBC volunteers that worked all night to get a full wall of phones running for the survivors to try to make contact with family. The doctors and nurses worked non-stop and looked like walking zombies. However, they never quit. The supplies from local businesses never stopped coming. I was overwhelmed by the supplies coming in. As an example, one Chik-Fil-A supplied over 300 sandwiches!

3. The facilities - The survivors were able to get their first shower since the hurricane as well as every toiletry item they needed (including some beauty supplies for the women). Again, coming from people who lacked running water for 4 days, this was a huge blessing.

All this to say, I am so proud of our city for the smiles, hugs, and basic accommodations/supplies which Dallas has provided. Most of all, I will never forget the survivors. Despite how the media has portrayed them, the thousands I met will inspire me for the rest of my life. All black, all well below the poverty line, and all with a determination to rebuild that I have no doubt they will succeed in. Wonderful human beings and I just pray they are reunited with their families as quickly as possible. They deserve at least that much.

As a last note, I wanted to let you know what I think is needed the most: beds, bedding, and NEW clothes. I stress the "new" as the Red Cross will not accept used clothes. Socks, underwear and flip flops would be the first clothing items I would mention. There was plenty of food and water, so I wouldn't worry as much with this. Also, towels were in very short supply.

I hope this helps and feel free to contact me if you want to get more details. I'm just one of many that volunteered, but I wanted to at least pass this on to someone.

All My Best,


Reagan

Thanks, Reagan. I hope that was enlightening for the readers of this website. It was for me.

Tomorrow, the long-awaited Roy Williams debate.