Hurricane Ike

Jared was deployed today to assist our Disaster Response Team with hurricane Ike. Jared has been a DRT member since it's inception last year. The purpose of this team is to assist in the evacuation of patients that are in care homes, hospitals, etc that may be affected by the incoming storms. With that they may also be responsible for assisting FEMA with any other type of operation. They can be filling sandbags, evacuating animals, or assisting with search and rescue. His flight left today at 1125, and he is scheduled to return on the 26th of this month. This can be changed at any time and he may come home early or be kept longer. He is paid the entire time he is gone. He is excited about the opportunity and is looking forward to spending time working with the team. We have been up and down about when he was going and it has been quite a fiasco, but he is on his way now. We have a strike team out there now and Jared and another guy from Medic West went together today. The third group from our operation in Las Vegas will be getting together and packing up preparing for their departure in the upcoming weeks. Our first group went out just before Gustav hit. I will try to keep you updated on everything but since he is gone, I have also picked up all of the overtime shifts that he had signed up for. We will both be busy. Please keep Jared and the countless other people that have traveled to help out with the hurricanes in your thoughts and prayers. As I am sure most of you know, several of the people that came in from across the country to help after Katrina, were shot at. We hope they don't have to deal with that.