Getting ready to help.

My MOOC #BUMOOC blog.

In September, 2013, the most popular beach resort in the country, Acapulco, was hit by the storms "Ingrid" and "Manuel" leaving several hundreds of people homeless and without water and food.

My wifw, Iza has some relatives living in the  fisherman´s town of San Jeronimo, half an hour from Acapulco downtown. She was very nervous a week before the 14 th  of September when she learned from her cousin Ignacio that there have been raining for several days and that the weather forecast was announcing a hurricane or probably two, one after the other.

She was in constant communication thru the facebook pages and telephone until the 19th when the bad weather hit the inland. We lost communication for about 3 days until Ignacio was able to make a cell phone call announcing the very precaurious situation that prevailed in the area and with the news that his parents, Iza´s uncles were fine but their homeland was under about one meter deep in water and that people were having trouble to find water and food because the bridge on the main road was broken.

My volunteer job a the present is as an instructor for the Tlalnepantla fire department in the Mexico state close to the northen Mexico city metro area. My job experience includes working for the Mexican Red Cross and have experience in disaster response.Also, my duties as a Civil Protection consulting agent gives me the administrative skill to handle interagency relations.

When Iza brought to my attention the situation on behalf of her relatives, my first course of action was to contac fire chief Rangel at the Tlalnepantla Fire Dept to find out in what way we were able to help in this case since Acapulco is in the state of Guerrero. Two days later, Chief Rangel then took me to visit the city´s Civil Protection Director, Mr Abel Lucero who told me to write an executive summary of the situation for him to read at a meeting with the Major next Monday.

On the second week, Mr Lucero advise us that the situation was wroteon the Major´s agenda but that it might take about a week to respond to it. That was my opportunity to explain to Mr. Lucero, about the mutual aid program in wich all the fire departments in the state work to respond and help each other to respond to emegencies in other counties.

With a little help from friends.

Meanwhile, in Acapulco the situation was growing worst due to a lack of coordination from the Guerrero authorities to send the resources that the people were needing. At that point, Iza started a fund collecting program thru her Facebook page among her friends with little response for the first 2-3 days. My contibution to the cause was to add a comment in her page that we probably will be sponsored by the local Fire Department. Suddenly, people started to respond  and we saw ourselves driving our Jeep aroun town coolecting the contributions. My wife had to learn how to take track of inventory and donors information as well public relations to affirm to the public out of the usual FB circle, that this was a serious enterprise and that the goods will arrive to the proper hands. She even wrote and signed as responsible thank you letters as requested by some persons. By Friday, we have collected abou half a ton of goods as per our specs outlined in the request¡¡¡. That same day, at noon, Chief Rangel was instructed to send a group of specialists (doctors, nurses, rescuers, firefighters) and Iza and I could join the convoy. So we had everything ready to depart on that evening when we were notify that the trip was on hold because the travel expenses were not ready until next wensday.

We had everything packed and ready in the truck and have two options: one was to wait to drive with the group or, second, to travel at our own expense.At around 10:00 friday night we decide to go on our own early in the next morning.

Acapulco here we go.

We arrived to Acapulco saturday eveninig and met with Iza´s cousin Ignacio and spend the night over at his house. On Sunday morning, after a 45 minutes ride we arrived to Sn Jeronimo and went directly to Ignacios parents house and after a fast brunch we sterted to visit the disaster area  and distribute the food donated by our town´s neighbors.

 Also,  we were able to help some elder house tenants to shovel away some sand from their house fronts 

Help is on the way.

On monday morning, Chief Rangel called me on he radio to let me know that the travel expenses were authorized for a team of about 60 civil servnts to travel and stay from 1 - 2 weeks as neccesary¡¡¡.

We left Acapulco on tuesday morning as we learned that our city´s mayor was giving the green flag to the personnel and equipment headed to the zone as part of a "mutual aid"  agreement with the Guerrero state governor and the state of Mexico governor. I think that the fact that both governors belong to the same political party had something to do with it.

On our way back, we took the time to visit the beach wich we found empty and all alone for ourselves. a real treat after a week of a diversity of activities and several skills deployment that led to bring a few mllion pesos worth of aid to a lot of our countrymen.