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July 25, 2007
Real heroes
The current flood crisis has exposed the folly of many "managers" in the Public Services, the usual crop of non-specialist filing clerks who have risen to positions of authority over services they know nothing about except what they have been told in their famous "business cases" and "briefing notes". These are the people who keep appearing on the TV and answering the inevitable question of "how do we flush the loo?" with - "conserve your bath water and use that sparingly to flush." What bath water?
It has also seen a magnificent response from the troops on the ground. Police, fire, ambulance, life boat crews, army, navy and airforce personnel, electricity workers, water suppliers and the horde of volunteers who have worked non-stop to deal with the floods, rescue people, distribute supplies and try to keep services running.
My electricity was restored, by means of a huge mobile generator which arrived at 23.00 on Monday night, at 01.00 on Tuesday morning. This meant that a team of electrical technicians and engineers worked to find the cables, disconnect the flooded sub station and then connect their generator. Elsewhere my former colleagues in the fire and rescue services have worked round the clock dealing with rescue, flooding and every other type of incident. We have crews here from all over the country and no one is working to normal time. Sleep? They take it when and where they can. It makes me proud to have been associated with these folk and wish I could still contribute to the effort they are making.
These are the real heroes of the hour, the men and women who have done the job, know what they are doing and how to do it. They are pulling it off in the face of equipment shortages, poor planning and appalling conditions. Your prayers and your good wishes for them all should be shouted from the rooftops. Make sure they hear you!
Posted by The Gray Monk at July 25, 2007 10:42 AM
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Comments
Will do my best and it is nice to hear you are doing well.
Posted by: vw bug at July 25, 2007 03:57 PM
Many years ago, when I lived in Nawlins, some drunken idiot who lived upstairs caused our apartment building to burn down in the wee hours.
The New Orleans Fire Department arrived very quickly and controlled the blaze, rescued a woman and a child who were trapped in one upstairs apartment and a man who was trapped in his bathroom in another. They even made it possible for me to salvage a lot of costly possessions from my own apartment.
Afterwards, I wrote the fire department a rather lengthy letter of praise.
Great post, and I couldn't agree more!
Posted by: Seth at July 25, 2007 07:01 PM