The fight continues in the Gulf. We stepped out for two days and the Team flew with Tad to Washington D.C. for the National Jefferson Award ceremony at the National Building Museum. Tad, the founder of the Team, was honored with the National Jefferson Awards’ highest honor for the Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 or Younger. Considered the “Nobel Prize for Public Service,” the awards annually celebrate America’s commitment to giving back and contributing toward the larger good. Others who received awards for their contribution to public service were New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker; Goodwill Industries CEO Jim Gibbons; Partners in Health founder Paul Farmer; Oakland Raiders football player Nnamdi Asomugha and Charlotte Bobcats basketball player Tyrus Thomas.
Three weeks prior, the Team began an aggressive initiative to clean up the beaches of Louisiana. Of course, we chose the hardest ones to start out. They are called the Barrier Islands, and they are located at the southern most tip of LA. These Islands were built many years ago to hold back the ocean from taking over the marshes and grass lands of LA. When you stand on them, on one side you have the ocean and on the other side you have the wetlands, which are full of beautiful tall grasses, fish and wildlife.
Though it seemed impossible to get all of our equipment to these islands, we knew when the oil would come, it would come here first and these islands are the first defense for all of the marshes. If we could capture the oil there, we could protect our beaches, birds, fish and marshes. We knew we had to try, and we did.
The only way to get our gear to the Islands was by a large barge heavy enough to hold all of our gear, but able to go through shallow water. To make things even more difficult we had to find a barge with a crane that would be able to lift our equipment from the boat onto the beaches of the islands.
Well...we found one...and we also found ourselves in the middle of severe weather including a hurricane, tornados, lighting, wind and rain. Many times we had to abandon ship and take speedboats to shelters. One time the rain was coming so fast and hard we took a small boat and fled to a nearby abandoned home that stood in the middle of the marshes. The currents at times were so bad we had to tie 4 boats together, and fight against the stream just to keep from washing out into the Gulf.
Nevertheless, the Team made it after 4 days. We quickly unloaded our beach clean up gear, which was donated by Terex, and got to work. Due to the wet and marshy conditions we brought in heavy haul hydraulic loaders, dump trucks, and trailers, which were all equipped with Low Ground Pressure Amphibious Tracks. These allow us to go over grasses without destroying them or into four feet of water without getting stuck. We also brought in light towers, enabling us to work at night, dozer blades, 6 foot steel rakes and special hydraulic powered drum rakes, which allow us to cut off a layer of the beach and find the oil underneath the sand.
This all may sound boring, but to keep it simple....the tide brings in oil...but...it also brings in sand which covers the oil. We have to find the oil and the only way to do that is when the tide is low, peel back the beach and find it, suck it up and remove it from the islands. This needs to be done and it needs to be done quickly.
The days are now starting to get long. We start at 3 a.m. and don’t get back till around 10 at night. The team is exhausted from the sun that blasts down on the beach. The work is hard, but the need to get this done drives us.
We feel as if we are standing in the shoes of millions of Americans who would love to be here and save their homeland, but cannot.
In the next few days we are going to start staying on a ship that is docked near the islands. The ship will be parked close enough to the island so that we can jump on our hovercraft and get some food and a few hours of sleep here and there. The boat captain was more than happy to help us. He says there are some bunks on which we can crash whenever we need and his cook will be sure to have food in the kitchen when we need it. It will be fun; the Team has never lived on a ship before.
Though we are exhausted and the work ahead seems endless, we know the good people of southern LA have not even recovered from Katrina. Now, this. Everything informs me they are good, sincere and loving people. We will stand with them through this as long as funding allows us.
We have told the local officials in Plaquemines Parish that we will serve alongside them until the next major hurricane. We have our response fleet parked at a Peterbilt Dealer near-by and are committed to responding to the next major hurricane for rescue and response operations. But, until then, we are here and we will help.
I hope for better days ahead for the state. God knows they need it.
