More on the San Diego Fires

While I’m quite happy that the fires haven’t affected us (except for the smoke and particulates in the air), it saddens me to see the great loss that so many people have suffered. We returned to our house on Wednesday as the fire threat lessoned and my parents’ 2 bedroom condo is a bit small for 4 adults, a baby, and a dog.

I decided that since we have been and are so fortunate, that I would volunteer. On Wednesday, I went down to Qualcomm Stadium to volunteer. There were so many volunteers, it almost seemed like chaos. I checked in and then waited around. When the guy organizing teams took my name, I said that I had some medical experience (I’m an EMT-B) as I saw other teams being sent out to move stuff to/from people’s cars in the 80+ degree heat. He sent me to the medical volunteer station (which I should have seen first) and they sent me upstairs to the club level where they had the medical facility. So, I checked in and helped out checking people in before they could be seen. As the day continued, my job turned into the job of bouncer. I was supposed to make sure that people didn’t storm the door, were checked in before going inside, and had to keep the media and unnecessary people out. I met some nice people and it was great to see so many people of all different skill sets volunteering their time. Their were some many volunteers that people were being turned away. At the end of the day, I was asked to do data entry into an Excel spreadsheet. This started me thinking that there must be a better way to handle all the information. After talking with the doctor that set it up, I’m convinced that with some assistance from some of the doctors there, I can develop and a deployable, self contained computer/network that could handle supply needs, patient checkin, records, patient checkout, etc.

In any case, we’re all doing fine and paraphrasing the rabbi on Yom Kippur, I wish all those affected by the fires an easy recovery.