All the Comforts of Home?

This morning they returned to the ‘man camp’.

The “Man Camp”

It had all the comforts of home – a gourmet kitchen:

Fine dining room:

And custom laundry service – would you like light or heavy starch?

Rudy didn’t get a photo of where they would sleep. Which is just as well, because about then I’m wondering what I encouraged him to get himself into? It looks like something out of the old M*A*S*H* TV show. I can’t imagine him having to work 16 hours a day, in the cold and rain, and then THIS is where he gets to spend his down time? What kind of rest & rejuvenation can he get in an open air, leaky tent??

Fortunately, they found out their ‘home base’ was going to be further south in NJ, in the town of Tom’s River. So they spent the day moving all of their equipment down to the staging area there. And then the good news, they have motel rooms reserved in AC (Atlantic City) for the next few weeks! Yea! A real bed, heat, and a hot shower every night.!! This is what the drive south looked like:

Hopefully when the weather clears tomorrow they can get started working and help restore power to all those poor people who are still without electricity for almost 10 days now.

Detour – Atlantic City

The man camp wasn’t fully set up yesterday, so the crew spent the night at a hotel in Atlantic City. After driving 1500 miles across country, they had to drive another hour or two to have a place for the night – but of course there are no hotel rooms any closer. This morning they had a chance to see some of the damage near their hotel before heading north again:

A temporary fence was erected to keep people off damaged sections of the beach.

Sand carried in by the storm tide probably had covered this entire street.

Water-soaked belongings are stacked in piles waiting to be hauled away.

Not sure what happened to this truck, but glad it wasn’t one of ours!

It had started raining again, as Winter Storm Athena was moving into the area. Just what this area does NOT need….

Convoy

They made it as far as Altoona IA Sat. night. Four more crews were meeting them there from other parts of SD. There are 10 vehicles traveling together in a convoy – line trucks, cranes, bucket trucks, a bobcat (that’s on a trailer – I’d hate to drive a Bobcat that far!!) and I’m not sure what else – those were the ones I could make out in the photos that Rudy sent me Sun. morning just before they hit the road again:

They spent Sun. night in Reynoldsburg OH. I think they drove about 650 miles. Here they are fueling up again this morning in Reynoldsburg:

Plans seem to change minute by minute. I can’t imagine the amount of coordination it takes to get all the people and equipment and supplies in the right places at the right time. Today they are heading to Harrisburg PA, which is apparently a staging area until they are needed in NJ. They’re not sure if they will spend some time there, or continue on to NJ tonight. There is talk that they may be housed in a racetrack or soccer stadium that has 4000 beds set up – a ‘man camp’ Rudy calls it. Time will tell……