In the Center of a Hurricane

Well, that may be a bit of stretch. You see, I spent last night in SAIC's Emergency Operations Center volunteering to answer the phone. We have several office in Pensacola-Shalimar-Huntsville, and it is company regs to have employees check in at times of natural disaster. So I was in a Center for a Hurricane. Well, come to think of it, during my 5 hour shift, Ivan had been downgraded to a tropical storm as it plowed through Northern Alabama, so I guess I was in a Center for a Tropical Storm, and not really in the Center of a Hurricane at all. Conclusion: Blog title is a sham.

The shift started of with a bang, as the cheese tray we had fell off the cart and hit the floor. Not a good start. My first responsibility was to contact different Business Unit Managers, and ask for a status update on his/her employees homed in the path of Ivan. It was 7 at night at the time, so I only got a hold of 1 of 6 people I called (as he was in San Diego. Lucky.)

Condon: Hello, is this Martin LaPointe?
LaPointe: Yes, who is this?
Condon: Hi Martin, this is Chris at the McLean EOC. I am calling to acquire a status update regarding the storm in Alabama. Our database shows you have 13 employees in Shalimar, Florida, and Shalimar, as we've seen on the news, is in complete disarray. Can you confirm that your employees are safe?
LaPointe: I no longer have employees in Shalimar. That contract got relocated to Cape Canaveral about 8 months ago. Something tells me our database is a little out of date.
Condon: Okay, that's good to hear. (awkward pause) Umm...not about the database, I mean. About your employees, and their relocation. Umm...yeah.
LaPointe: Are we finished here?
Condon: Yes, thanks Martin.

Ok, the next step is to type into the EOC's running crisis log any pertinent information garnered during one's shift.

"LaPointe no longer has employees in Shalimar."

Hmm...that should do it. Wait a minute...LAPOINTE NO LONGER HAS EMPLOYEES IN SHALIMAR?!? What happened to them??? Oh, no!!! The Hurricane has wiped out all of LaPointe's employees, who previously up to this point were in Shalimar! What have I done? I gotta call the CEO - we no longer have our employees in Shalimar!!!

"LaPointe's holdings in Shalimar relocated to Cape Canaveral 2/04. Outside of projected path of danger. No further action needed."

Much better. So after that was finished, the job switched to answering the phones, should our Southern employees call in to verify their safety and need information on hotels and services in their area. This should be good. 5 hours of helping fellow employees. But no cheese tray.

The phone only rang once.

In five long hours, the phone rang once. Since there's three of us in the room, we put the call on speaker so that we all could get involced.

Us: Hello, EOC?
Caller: Yes, this is Mr. Wiu's Peking Garden, I am at the front desk with your order.
Us: We're on it. Stat.

We were starving. This was an emergency.