Never Send The Granny Brigade Out Without Proper Training Aug 28 '06    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Books Mildred D. Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Literature Unit From $8 Olivier Dunrea - Ollie From $7 The Bottom Line See title. A few years ago, several of us were called to work a Special Needs shelter after Hurricane Lily blew through our area. First, we had opened our own shelter; not a bad idea except for one minor thing, Hurricane Lily was supposed to hit us as a category 5 storm and our shelter was below sea level. With a Special Needs Shelter, you have people that are in wheelchairs, needing oxygen, needing electricity to run machines. We knew we were in it deep when the generators arrived on flatbeds and couldn't be started so that meant we could not open because one of the basic necessities wasn't available, electricity. Besides that, all of us were fit to be tied. We couldn't believe that our lives would be put in danger and the lives of sick people. We would have no way to get them out of the shelter if the need came up. Finally, someone got through to the top and we were told to close down the shelter, go home and get our families. While on our way home, a weather report came through and said that Hurricane Lily had taken an easterly turn and we would be spared, but not our neighboring cities to the east. We sat in our homes that night, listening to the wind blow, trees crashing down around us and no lights. The next afternoon, things calmed down so everyone decided to get out to see what kinds of damages we had received. It wasn't much, just a mess in the yards. By the time I got back into the house, my phone was ringing. I was needed to go to a neighboring city to work their shelter so that their people could go home and assess the damages to their homes. We were to report to our office, packed and ready to go by 7 am the next morning. All of us arrived, the vans and cars were loaded with medical supplies and our supplies. We had a prayer for our safe return and off we went. We couldn't go fast because all the roads were filled with debris. After a 1 hour trip that took us 2 1/2 hours, we arrived on the outskirts of town where we met the Military Police for an escort in. It was now time to call back to our office to let them know that we were with the MPs and were safe. We hunted that van down for the phone and couldn't seem to find it until one us felt something under the seat. It was a case of some sort so we opened. It was one of those bag phones. We handed it to the driver and she proceeded to plug it into the cigarette lighter. Great, it is working, we can get through to the office. The keypad was on the backside of the handset. The number was dialed, but nothing happened. We checked the phone and figured out that you had to press send. The number was then dialed and we heard someone on the other end speak. The driver started telling them we were OK when we heard hello? Hello? then nothing. This little dialing trick was tried again with the same results, On the third try, one of the people in our van started laughing, pointing at how she was holding the phone. She was trying to talk into the keypad, the person on the other end could not hear so they would hang up. By the time we got through, all of us were having fits of laughter and our office manager wasn't amused at all. This is why you don't send the Granny Brigade out without proper training. In honor of Bryan Carey's 2000th review.

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