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In reply to the discussion: DUers post the thing about post Katrina that shocked you the most [View all]alc
(1,151 posts)They were mostly first responders in the typical sense but some other volunteers. I was obsessed listening to the police scanners streaming online. Each stream had a different scanner channel on the left and right speaker and I had 3 computers running with 6 scanner channels.
I got obsessed and probably slept 1/2AM to 7AM and was listening almost all of the rest of the time (worked at home so didn't even miss for commute time)
I listened over 2 weeks and I got to recognize a lot of names and voices. I'd know who was still up when I went to bed and that most of them had been up when I got up and anyone sleeping now would be up before I get up. After the first 5/6 days they started getting more sleep but still did the same thing 15-20 hours a day.
From just "routine" helping people to having to find equipment/vehicles/fuel to even get to seeing if there were people. And the frustration when they couldn't get to an area they knew there were people (from helicopter reports) but had to move on or other areas. And the fear when they saw guns people getting shot (happened a few times) and later just from hearing what they thought were gunshots. And how almost all of them had to be told to sleep and even to eat - they just didn't want to take a break when someone else was waiting for them even when they knew they should and were being told to.