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When Disaster Strikes …
How do you prepare?
I have three bags that are packed and in my vehicle at all times. The minute I get home, I do my laundry and repack. The minute I get a phone call, I get on the next available flight. Doesn't matter, day or night, I get on that next flight.
How do you mentally prepare yourself for this?
It's very difficult. We find that, with a lot of our personnel, once they come out and do the work for the first time, they're either with us for a long time or they leave quickly.
How do you explain what you do to people?
I tell them I am in the cleaning business, the emergency cleaning business. If no one has ever experienced a flood or fire, they have no concept of what's involved. When flood enters your home, everything is affected. Things you wouldn't even think about are affected and it's hard to explain what we really, truly go through.
What is the most rewarding part of the job?
That's an easy question: helping people. When you first walk into a disaster area and see that building, it's dark, smells and is nasty, and the people you're with are very upset. But you look at that person and you know that you can make them happy in a week or two, and that you can put their life on the way to recovery. I make a lot of friends on the road because we work closely with them to help them through the disaster, and that's very rewarding.
And the most challenging?
Making sure all of the different constituencies are happy on a daily basis. It can be such a diverse group. Everyone has his or her individual concerns. I make sure that every one of these groups communicates with me what is important to them and then I get that taken care of in the right priority order.
Who is working on the flood recovery now?
We have people that we pull in from all over the country and we fly them in on an as-needed basis, and then we hire local labor. At the University of Iowa, we have a large number of students that signed up to come work. There are other individuals displaced from jobs that signed up to work.
When will you be done with the cleanup at the University of Iowa?
Hopefully we will be done with our part of the cleanup in three weeks without any unforeseen circumstances. Things change every day; it's a fluid situation. That's a bad pun, isn't it?
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: The_epoch_point @ 07/05/2008 10:18:17 PM
Comment: Wisconsin's unique landmarks once again find themselves in the pages of the latest novel to be presented to readers of history, thrillers and religion in a work that combines all three genres into an adventurous global conspiracy.
The Epoch Point, just released on May 1 and written by Wisconsin native Spencer Zimmerman, is a fictional novel that includes historical facts, certain to intrigue history buffs who are interested in history from the local to the international level, especially as that history thrillingly plays out into what Zimmerman describes as a worldwide "conflict between God and the devil, good and evil."
According to the book's synopsis, the lead character, Robert Davis, is "a young Airman fresh out of Air Force basic training," reflective of Zimmerman's own recent service in the Air Force. "After being held captive in China, (Davis) suddenly finds himself unraveling the most immense conspiracy in history...soon uncovering hidden facts suggesting Russian and Iraqi involvement...discovering the diary of Lee Harvey Oswald...As the clues surface, an evil emerges powerful enough to rewrite the entire history of humanity...before long the conspiracy takes on a supernatural form, marked by [natural disasters] and the wrath of God...Nothing [prepares] (Davis) for the final suspenseful twist the story takes, a da Vinci style revelation that reaffirms his belief in Christ."
Posted By: The_epoch_point @ 07/05/2008 10:18:05 PM
Comment: Zimmerman, having lived in several locations around Wisconsin, including near Lake Mills and Watertown, incorporated Wisconsin locations and history into his novel, among them a Viking cathedral on Washington Island and the events surrounding Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Also mentioned is a small village outside of Burlington, Wisconsin, founded by a Mormon religious leader who proclaimed himself king, the only monarchy to ever occur in the forty-eight continental states in American history. Among the other Wisconsin landmarks in The Epoch Point, and most notably, the famous national landmark Aztalan is discussed at length.
Zimmerman's discussion of Aztalan in his book in part follows what Zimmerman calls the "darker" side of Aztalan, including its cannibalism and religious practices, and the instantaneous disappearance of its thriving population. Zimmerman's writing also seeks to make connections between Aztalan's existence with that of the Minoan civilization from Ancient Greece and Zoroastrian culture of the Middle East. All three peoples had similar beliefs, worshipped fire (one of Aztalan's mounds is believed to have been the abode of an "eternal" flame) and practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
Zimmerman noted all of these "obscure (historical) connections," which ultimately inspired him to take the connections and formulate them into an adventurous plot. Writing his book took roughly two years.
The book's chapters are titled after the sixty-six books of the Bible, and the plot progresses as Davis reads through each chapter of the Bible, opening the Bible for the first time in chapter one of The Epoch Point. Each chapter follows a "flashback" style in structure, in which the book's characters experience revelations of historical events and experiences from 4000 B.C. to the present, which allow them to observe how those events contributed to the global conspiracy they are presently confronting. Zimmerman states that the book's events begin on New Year's Eve of 2000, and end on Christmas of 2006.
While writing novels remains at present a hobby for Zimmerman, he already has ideas for a second novel that he anticipates will follow a more scientific fiction path. The Epoch Point is currently available through Amazon.com, and Zimmerman is hoping to get copies of the book into some of Lake Mills's downtown novelty shops.
-Emily Ann Paape ???The Lake Mills Leader???
Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/27/2008 11:58:15 PM
Comment: Dosn't matter! If Big Sur burns, they will see a greater responce, and rebuild, and more Federal money, than Iowa, or any swamped town on the Mississippi, and N.O. all together! Because they are rich!