Cajun Navy Ground Force Interview

…Yeah. Everybody Aaron was PubSafe. And today I have. I’ve got the Cajun Navy ground force and Daryl Arnold who was also with book safe So I appreciate you taking some time out today. And today we’re going to be talking specifically about a hurricane Ian.

And, you know we’re going to do a little bit of a introduction a little bit of a backstory but then really spend most of the time talking about hurricane Ian. And Rob’s experience down there you know Rob is the boundary of the cage native ground force. And we were just talking before we started recording that Rob actually spent 10 weeks out of the Fort Myers area working on this disaster So thank you very much for sharing your experience and your story and your expertise. you know tell us a little bit about, you know yourself Rob and. And give us a little bit of backstory on the organization and then we’ll kind of roll into hurricane Ian from there.

I do want to say that I’ve read your book I enjoyed the book. It was a it was an easy read as a quick read. But it also filled in some of the blanks that I’ve always just kind of wondered about with how you got to this particular point So…

take it away and just let people know about you and in the Navy…

Well thanks for saying that about my book And I have two more books in my head that. Update anything you read? yeah so my background I am a systems person I build, my my background is building enterprise level business systems I’m a programmer but. You know I started building. internet whatever’s back in the mid nineties and just got really good at it And so I, diddled.

And manage…

That build software but I managed teams to do it. and you know software for enterprise business systems which means you have to understand. How things work. within a business and then take and translate that in to. Code basically.

and so, you know if you think about disasters, Disasters are a system. beginning from the moment That storm. Maybe even four storms even recognize their systems in place to do that and communicate that out. And. Every step along the way to today where we have.

FEMA has over 460 ongoing disasters That date back 40 years that are not closed. These are still open. And things So they, you know people think well, you know the wind died down so we’re good now And really that wind flood. tornado…

fire whatever it is. Is just the beginning. Have a life-changing event for. annually millions and millions of people And it’s really a. human rights thing to really do better at it in our country And there are specific.

things that we’ve recognized as you know imagined. I go and build a business system for a company a better work You can’t fake it You really have to hit hit the nail on the head And I’ve been able to hit the nail on the head in the disaster space in a way I don’t think too many people have been able to do. I’m an outsider to it for the most part, or I have been an outsider we’re becoming more and more insiders. If you think of. A circus circus moves from city to city and it’s a closed group of people that perform And then they move to the next city and.

That’s the way disaster. It’s it’s as chaotic as a circuses. And there are a lot of players and they all know each other and they move from disaster to disaster. Some come early some come in the middle some stay longterm.

And I think there’s a very much in the American psyche a lack of understanding of how these things work And I’ve I’ve learned that, since I got involved in 2016 really for the first time in depth when we had massive flooding, In south Louisiana and Baton Rouge Which is where I live. and that’s that’s where I got involved and saw the need to bring order to chaos using systems And so on the systems guy. You might’ve been in the road. Trucks and boats And then along I 10 that I saw, when I first got an interest in disaster response I was laying on my sofa watching the news and I saw all these people with all this initiative. That wanted to go do something now.

And it was evident to me that there was a lack of direction and. you know or an organizational role for these people to participate in that process. And I think ever since then it has become more and more apparent that. NGOs are playing a bigger bigger role And it’s interesting as we look at hurricane Ian, And we’ll talk more about this but you know

this was really the first time that I felt. After talking to you that the government actually put their arm around you and said Hey. We need you. And, you know, you guys came in and do what you did. Which was you?

I’ve been at other places after some other hurricanes where the word came out that if you show up you’re going to get arrested. You know you’re out there doing what you guys were doing in Fort Myers You’re actually going to go to jail. You know so yeah. It was interesting…

And how government’s going to take a look at this…

Well…

They’re so easy There’s so many things that you just said So you were involved in a batteries. You know about the battery there’s flooding that we had. That were cards yet So I was I lived here at the time. And…

You know…

The work was endless. And it’s to me it’s all about impact That’s what systems do they. Shift impact or they change impact or they…

They. Bring, A new level of, Forwardness to. world and that’s all I want to do It’s Ah I’m too busy to do anything other than find a way to bring forwardness. Progressive ideas into, a system. into chaos and this was the opportunity to do it.

I never put foot in a boat in 2016. I…organized the guys that put foots in boats and made them highly efficient. you know the, my background in software development and systems and Facebook and social media which you know, In 2009 in a whole different this is actually my second go around. And in 2009 I was on the front page of investors business daily. For co-founding what’s arguably the largest organic political movement in recent history.

and, for the systems that led to. organic movement. I’m credited with a meteoric rise of it. And it was because of technology and specifically social media that empowered it. it’s connecting people to people and.

That’s what happened in 2016 all those guys and trucks. I mean where are you going to go And then you might go help your cousin cause he called you on the phone. Right…

in a in a, in a, an entry point where we know that the officers are going to let you through and we need 30 people rescued I mean we’re going to communicate with you instantly in your truck right there and say go restaurant…

We did it using systems And so. By doing that we rescued over 30,000 people in 2016 and the. The key was finding those guys stuck in traffic or with their boats or driving around the city looking to help and looking for ways to get past roadblocks and things like that. Yeah. And clearing those roadblocks for them, by working with the authorities, like…you gotta have a figurehead doing it And I was the figurehead doing it and I got a lot of criticism for it.

you’re just a guy behind a computer Like you’re not actually out here doing anything I’m like well you can think that doesn’t really matter…

So I, I built the systems that. Drove these guys to do rescues and. I always say that. In Katrina 1800 people died. because they didn’t have.

Smartphone and Facebook. but in 2016, 18 people died. you know if you’re in Katrina and you’re stuck in your attic and you have a clamshell phone you crack it open and you might have cell coverage If you do who are you going to call Well you might call 9 1 1. Are you going to call your brother? Jimmy.

To maybe come rescue you and then keep your fingers points. We’ll find you or get somebody there to you but in 2016 you had. You had your smartphone you had your. iPad iPhone and your influence And so use social media to make a Facebook post. and hundreds of people saw it and I gathered those It’s simple I gathered those Facebook posts together into a system.

And then had people sitting behind their computers and using mobile phones to dispatch. The guys with mobile phones and boats to go do rescues I mean, The waste and fire do it…

It’s officers don’t drop. Looking for crime They’re told where to go. We dispatch voters to do. And that’s what that’s really what the Cajun Navy is. Listen.

We’ve had boats I did research Yeah They’ve had boats for 6,000 years as human beings maybe even longer but like in documented history 6,000 years, and you think there’s a flood, a bunch of the good people in the community Aren’t gonna get in a boat and go rescue people. So technically. The Cajun Navy has existed since the beginning of humanity because people are going to get in boats. Sq their neighbor in the grass hut. Right We’re going to do that That’s what we do.

What changed? It’s the internet, the internet and tech. Is what changed? And the ability. Get people engaged ahead of time And so that’s what the Cajun Navy is, is simply a technology movement It’s not a bunch of guys in boats It’s just not, they’re important.

We don’t just do boat rescues. We were spawned the tornadoes and wildfires and snow storms And. You know all men are of disasters.

bringing organization to chaos. You know, I would just describe. you know the activities. Ultimately it comes down to the people that are going to to the you know to the houses or. To the vehicles or wherever they’re going to have that human impact on people.

But, the effectiveness of individuals is determined by the system. That you’re describing that allows those individuals to be more effective. If they can only do one rescue a day. You need thousands and thousands of people that would be out there are doing rescues And if you can do five rescues a day, then you can work with a much smaller force because your efficiency. Factors are significantly higher.

I read that hurricane Ian was actually the deadliest storm since 1935 which I thought was pretty interesting And. You know from being down there for a total of 10 weeks which is a really long stretch for you a to be away from home. you know, Obviously you’re in some…work capacity that allows you to be gone for an extended period of time.

but to be living out of a camper You know parking lot. In front of a Walmart or whatever. You know place you work. Is a really long haul type effort. But in the same breath.

Hurricane Ian was just a monster of a storm And, you know the the the little bit that I saw it was just. It was cataclysmic, you know so. start us with. When did you first decide that you’re going to go Did you get invited down there Did somebody pick up the phone and say Hey we’re going to need you guys down or here Or did you just look at it and say, there’s going to be a big problem here Let’s start moving that direction because we know our services are going to be needed…

Well you know I’ll I’ll back up a minute and talk about, he talked about this being there 10 weeks. That’s not even the longest stint that we’ve stayed. four hurricane Ida. In Houma we stayed in home a four through…January through January. And that was August September October November December January six months.

Laura. In 2020 we stayed in lake Charles for 10 months bought a house for volunteers to live in. To continue to help. Let Charles was, was hit by Laura. In August of 2020 and then hurricane Delta hit in September.

And then the dust diced. Storm that came down through Texas reached down into lake Charles as well. And that was the third declared disaster And then there was flooding in may. that was so there were four declared disasters in lake Charles nine months And so we. Stayed there through really through the beginning of hurricane Ida which was we left we left in June or July of 2021.

and of course they were closer to our home. I’m in Baton Rouge Lafayette And so it was an hour hour and a half drive but we stayed and extended period of time was It’s a big commitment…

to own a house You have to mow the lawn. at the lawn on the house…

The house was damaged We had to have repaired I worked with contractors to make that happen And then we turned around and sold the house when we were done working in lake Charles. so…part of our mission is to actually embed into the most, The communities that need it the most. And so, you know any hurricane that hits where any places in the country at this point, maybe except for the west coast cause we don’t have enough funding together yet. We’ll respond and look for. The community that has the least amount of social support.

And that’s really what we do. We kind of group all disaster survivors into one. Big pile We’re going to go help. We’re going to go help in Fort Myers county or in…

county which was where Ida hit down in homo or cactus You perish in south Louisiana where we’re Laura hit and each just kind of show up and you just kind of well where do you start And again in the name of systems. And efficiently efficiency. If. You are. you know, We…

The cycle of life is this And this is really important to understand that, you know what’s what’s more chaotic and UN. Centralized than a room full of kindergartners. Right. There’s no hierarchy. They’re trying to develop it.

So when they get into 10th, 11th 12th grade what’s happened, right Become hierarchal now. And we have our networks of friends and some people aren’t our friends anymore. but what happens We get into our thirties We have kids and our kids in our forties our kids, parents are our friends and our churches our friends and our job. We have friends and. Our community We have friends.

What happens when we get into our sixties and seventies our friends begin to dissolve again and would become decentralized again. So now we need support because our home is destroyed. Who’s going to come help us with on 40. I can rely on my baseball team. They’re going to show up and help me clean up my home.

I’m 65. My kids live a state away or my kids aren’t don’t have the financial means to come help me. Who’s going to help me. So we find.

that. Community that is the most. decentralized that needs the most help. It just so happens most of the time it’s elderly individuals but it’s not always sometimes it’s. while support which is north lake Charles which is a very low income region of lake Charles and the city doesn’t want it there The mayor himself you know, was mad at us for helping and Gasport which is unbelievable what they do And they red line them.

So So politics and age are the two deciding factors on where we’re going to go. And we look at that And so we embed into that community. And we use the power of the Cajun Navy brand to bring in as many people and resources as we can through social media. And that’s the trick. That’s what works It works for us where we had a unique opportunity in 2016 to build a strong brand.

And we’ve just continued to grow. We have about just to Facebook about 160,000 followers We add 15 to 20 every disaster. Depending on the disaster we’re allowed 70,000…

followers. But Charles we added 70,000. But with social media we’re able to reach a lot of folks And so imagine. And five-year years and we have a million followers, the impact we can have. we tell, we encourage people to donate and to show up and they do, and that’s it’s a it’s a new movement for disaster response And.

It’s going to shake the foundations. Of all things in the disaster space as time goes on because the efficiency is incredible The first two weeks we were in. Two and a half three weeks we were in Fort Myers North Fort Myers with our safe camp distribution center. we took in and gave away over $10 million in kind donations food water diapers you name it. For about 14 days all volunteer led.

and didn’t spend a dime. And in fact in those three weeks we brought in all of the funding we needed to stay. for another five weeks. For actually seven weeks for say for 10 weeks. So…it’s a new model and it really flips.

It is so efficient. It’s nobody really knows realizes how effective and impactful it is but it’s going to change the disaster space then it’s time. And we’re using social media and technology is all we’re doing. Right. So on Average how far.

Volunteers. I mean. In. Hurricane Ian, obviously you guys came from Louisiana to get there but if you had to look at the general. Demographic of the volunteers

did you see people coming from really long distances And obviously most people probably come from that area because they have a personal connection That’s easy logistically to come into that area. but what did you see down there…

Yeah people drive People came from around the country. some some people buy plane tickets and fly in to help, some load up their vans with supplies or their trucks with supplies and…load up the kids. drive down and drop stuff off and turn it on and drive home or stay for a day and then turn around and drive home. it it’s…all over There’s really all over the place. it’s who we can reach through social media.

And to the. the established media we did. I think 24. national media interviews beginning before, Ian even struck I was live with CNN and Tampa while Ian was going over. Fort Myers.

right before we packed up and headed down. When it was safe to head. So we did. A lot of national media. and I all the time get people you look really familiar to me Where have I seen you before?

Well you might’ve seen me on On CNN or something…

So did you guys just. She her opinion. Hey we’re going to be needed or did anybody actually call you up and say Hey. Are you guys come in and we’d love to have ya. Appreciate your help…

No we just show up. We we let them know we’re coming We say Hey we called on volunteer Florida Three days. We started as soon as the these things start getting a cone of. Whatever. we start calling the state and saying Hey you know this is what our capability is.

We we are a known entity though, already So they just anticipate that we’re coming and we’ll be call and say Hey we’re coming And they’re like okay y’all come on. So We’re a member of the Ads. volunteer organizations active during disaster which is For all the nonprofits that come and help. and we have connections especially deep floor We probably have more connections at anywhere now after Ian. Florida’s a really.

Has more systems in place than any of the other states for any kind of disaster I believe. And we’ve made some really incredible. Connections and friends with various emergency management directors from all the counties down there and the volunteer Florida people And…just cause we show up and we. Don’t make promises We just show up and. Under promise and over deliver That’s one of our core three core tenants that all of our team operates by So…

We do it and we execute in a way that. I don’t think too many I don’t S. We were there this weekend actually I mean Camilo one of my team members went back. Friday Cause see knew somebody needed help in. We just show up and do it And we don’t.

You know…

It is what it is They’re up to many organizations doing what we do It’s surprising what there aren’t. How do you how do you How do you make your initial entry into an area like that So you came to Tampa and. Pre-staged and Tampa you were moving resources into Tampa, but you know when you knew that you’re going to go into the Fort Myers area how did you decide where to set up. How to structure or put people for like sub camps or outposts let’s say so you can start. You know reaching deeper into the communities…

Well we, first thing we have actually a relationship with Walmart. So Walmart has given us two $50,000 grants one in Kentucky. for the tornado and Mayfield tornado and then they just gave us a $50,000 grant for To set up a safe camp at their parking lot in Fort Myers beach. And so we had two safe camps. The original one was not through your relationship with Walmart It was, we just show up as soon as possible as soon as it’s safe and set up in a parking lot.

We look at the demographics of the community where we’re going to choose and look for For…low-income. yeah. We use some…proprietary ways to do that. To find that. Right away.

And we can set up and be rolling pretty quick And Fort Myers was really different and it’s always a learning experience Every disaster is different, but think about the panhandle of Florida and how far down Fort mottos was. Well Fort Myers was actually on the Southern side of hurricane Ian where hurricane D and hit the winds And. There was Sarasota.

Port Charlotte. Venice there were several other communities before you got to Fort Myers that had been hit So. And the first two or three days there was a very small trickle and there was some actual flooding on the roads There was small trickle of supplies that were making it down to us at our safe camp where people, like you said they’re driving in from around the country to bring supplies. And I began to say why aren’t we getting the response we typically get And I realized we’re on the, you know if you’re driving from Ohio you’ve been driving for 14 hours and you’re tired You’re going to stop in port Charlotte or Sarasota before you get to Fort Myers. So.

We put that out there and we say, I went live several times and actually they don’t with Fox weather as well I said, look, Fort Myers is on the Southern end of this We need you to drive when you’re coming and drive an extra hour or two and come all the way to Fort Myers. This was the hardest hit area We need supplies food water for these folks. We were having to shut down early and not…

send people home with nothing. And within a day or two, the car line. for drop-off was huge and it just exploded And so we went. For…

about 13 days until they had power back and until the local, Personal stores and things Just start opening again. How many teams did you have working around four buyers actually doing the search? Helping out…

We we don’t unless it’s listen So let’s talk about the search and rescue side in 2016 when this whole thing got started the Cajun Navy. Brand really took off or even Katrina. The flooding was so massive that there was no possible way authorities could respond to everything. Right. It was just needed When so when citizens can do 30,000 arrests it was just needed So 150,000 homes flooded in 2016 is overwhelming.

With these unless there’s an overwhelming need for search and rescue we’re just not going to do a lot of it. It’s not. it, it looks great on camera and it sounds good when you talk about it Well ladies are trying to ski and I see it all the time. You know that. These guys go out in their boats and your rescue people and like, Not really, not anymore And a lot less we have to, the hard part is staying in a parking lot for 10 weeks and helping John and Mr Vicki and all these people get back on their feet That’s the hard part…

So probably. talking about logistics really at the end of the day Right Logistics wins wars. The, you know it was the same. yeah…

It’s be able to coordinate all this between all these different moving parts is. Is really just kind of crazy cause. But I was there. I only spent a day or so there, that can profess. Attributed to anything other than always Boston.

And I saw an outpost out towards Fort Myers beach and it was just stacked with stuff, you know stacked with food and and all kinds of stuff that people donated. And there were a couple of guys that were sitting out there by themselves that had been there. And there were in some kind of house that had been taken over a little tiny like an artist’s home or something that had been taken over. Yeah there’s two guys were out there just kind of on this island of hope…

and it was just interesting to see. You know what they were doing and how they were trying to do it how they were trying to reach into the communities and, and Be a forward operating logistics point. and…

towards…

it is a little blue house. Kate’s a different Cajun Navy group set up something like that And. Yeah. I think it was…

yeah it It was across from the Publix parking lot Right You can go over the bridge that was on the left…

That group. That’s not us…

Yeah we I don’t know if you’ve seen our operations but. we, this it’s architected and it’s highly professional And. So we actually, what they left they left all that stuff there and it was there rain non it was a huge mess and it reflected on us because people didn’t know that there was another group using the Cajun Navy name So. We actually embedded out on pine island and that’s where it can be a little one this weekend And. We cleaned that up We cleaned up their mess and they, they cause a lot of it It caused a lot of headaches for us cause they don’t they don’t operate from the same type of systems approach that we do They just kind of Willy nilly.

And…fortunately. I guess my general point is that you know there were called. and each of them had found this. A foreign staging area out there. Yeah.

I did that by and see your operation. And it was by far the most organized. You guys had the trailer up you had the Euro you’re writing stuff on the side of the trailer You have the computers going. You know

Dan’s were coming and going It was obvious that you had structure and organization to. The process. You know yeah. And you were moving a lot of logistics through that parking lot So. Those things are, we’re definitely working.

yup. So…very excited to see how that logistical piece happens. What do you see for the future I mean you talk about some other Cajun names Cause there are multiple Cajun Navy names out there and they’re not affiliated. What do you see for the future As far as NGOs working together getting some synergies some standards. Yeah Do you see that happening?

I’ve always thought that it’d be great to have a meeting. Of guys like you and the other leaders of the other groups to come together and try to get a council together that kind of talks about working We’d get better. At, you know the overall response from the non-government groups…

Yeah well, That is designed to do that. and we work with a lot of. nonprofits already in GS. That…

that compliment what we do already. operation barbecue relief is a very big partner Stan Hayes the founder there is a mentor we’ve been up to there he invited us to the grand opening of their veterans center on land between the lakes. operation airdrop is. Partner. we worked with him pretty closely during Ian, And we we’re talking to some mental health organizations to provide, mental health services.

At safe camp in the first few weeks but also to go extended periods of time and even. I just the call before you guys was with them to develop a training program where we can actually train. It’s. Provide mental health training to. Average citizens who.

go on the field. And want to help and prepare them to handle. At a deeper level. The emotional aspects of the things that the people they’re helping are going through. You know we.

Our mission is to protect and stabilize the elderly and disabled victims of natural disaster. Those two words protect and stay wise or not Willy nilly We’ve spent six years coming up with them because it describes what we do.

the protect part is the physical. Let’s help them get into safe places if they’re living in. Substandard housing Then we can help them with that. But stabilize is also is about the mental aspect and help them. Become mentally prepared to be able to.

Tackle what lies ahead of them? Again we’re really talking about the elderly or the people that we help. If you’re in your thirties and forties you can bounce back…fifties You can bounce back. But when you’re 60 and you spent your whole life. Achieving everything you have around you.

and you lose it and you don’t have insurance. And are you going to start over Do you have the, like the fortitude Do you have the. Desire. Kind of settled in. The routine where you’re comfortable and you try and live out your days you know retirement or whatever And now you’re forced to…rebuild your entire life not just your home but.

Yeah it I did a job now You’re going to leave enough money to rebuild to your standard of living And so that is a scary thing for people and…

that it you don’t they don’t talk about it You. I don’t see you know, there’s. There. Very few organizations that do this on any kind of scale that we see them having a major impact because we’re working with the people that are the most impacted and they’re not getting that kind of help. So we’re trying to partner with.

Organizations that provide that not only mental but also medical We ran a medical facility as well. And so we’re building those out to provide one place. Where all those services can be provided in the early days and then transferred into a community where we go into the community and help…

Yeah. I can think of two people that stick in my mind. That are exactly the type of people that you are. about. I was down at the Piney island area and I drove by as a VFW where people were starting to congregate.

The entire pilot area is made up of manufactured homes or small trailer homes. You know amazing job surviving the flood. Because that’d be driving down the street and I look over and there’s a boat rusting up against someone’s front door I’m like, boy that seems really out of place And it’s just so odd that it doesn’t register. But at the VFW. I a guy walked up to me and he said you know it was basically asking for some help but.

he communicated that he had literally gone from You know his house too. A pair of shorts no shoes and a cigarette. That is what this guy had left. How do you prepare something mentally and emotionally? To make that transition from two days ago.

Or 24 hours ago to where he standing today with obviously without a lot of resources. And then there was another woman. Who

encountered in one of the mobile home areas. She was just kind of standing outside of her trailer looking around I drove by and I could just tell she was, you know out of sorts And I asked her. I say, Hey can I help you And she said yes can you help me stand my refrigerator? And I said well that’s kind of an odd question but sure. So I went in her in her home.

And all the furniture was in disarray And I was looking around trying to figure out how it got like this And then she explained that she was up to her chest and water. All night long and her furniture had actually lifted and floated around her. Mobile home and then sell them back down And she wanted me to look at a refrigerator. And. Took me a minute to process what it was going on And I say Hey.

You know you just can’t stay here There’s nothing left for you. And I think she needed someone to tell her that. You know cause otherwise. I started organizing her house again and it was never going to be livable. So you know you’re able to.

But again Well that’s right. We’ve set up on pine island for eight weeks and that’s where we stayed.

And help this a 13 mile long island It’s. One mile wide and 13 miles long and one street Missouri. Right up the middle of it And there’s the immediate east from the north end all the way down to the south and little ones often. Off one one lane roads and different things And we just we embedded there’s as a population of about 10,000. And we just stayed and helped and that’s if we go back, that’s where it will be as part.

Hello. It’s. It’s a different it’s completely different There’s no. it’s an unincorporated area so there’s no mayor. There’s no representation So there’s not somebody that speaks on behalf of pine island We actually went to a FEMA meeting there right at the church where we in the parking lot where we were the church.

Tema showed up. To have a community meeting. And they had a table set up. About 12 individuals sitting up there. And they were all outsiders.

There was nobody. The audience was full of people live from pine island but there was females from outside There was a some state officials There were some county officials, but nobody that represented pine island sat on that table. And

this cause there’s nobody that speaks for them. And so if you’re going to get well And in fact we went to, governor DeSantis came to, Matt O’Shea which is the island that you cross through to get to pine island. And you had a press conference and we got invited to go to his press conference They were giving away. $7 million to all non-disaster non-profits But we went and sat in his meeting and his press conference and I’m thinking. Literally five minutes from where we were sitting.

John…

is living in a. 1995 trailer that his kids brought down from him for him. Hunting trailer that his kids brought down for him from Chicago. It doesn’t have power. doesn’t have running water It’s on a tilt.

the things. To say substandard is. not even the right word. he has macular degeneration. it’s very dark in there at night.

and he’s living in the shadow of his home that had the roof ripped off on one side. On one side of the eyewall and they want to act with I will pass that rift off the other side of his roof. And here I was kind of dismayed because the governor gave away $7 million to non-disaster nonprofits Every one of them. And I’m thinking wait a minute. Yeah…

this doesn’t make any sense to me So we cannot have been any more embedded on pine island The pine island…Eagle is the name of the press there And we became friends with Bernadette Peters Who’s the writer for the Eagle and she did several stories on us and what we were doing there. And we got a warehouse donated to us on the island that we stored supplies in that were given to us and we lived in the church parking lot there for eight weeks big. So we had so. much equipment It wasn’t there were nine trips to get it all back to Louisiana from, from pine island So…

And the last day we were there. after eight weeks we we left because we really didn’t have enough funding to stay any longer…

But the last day we’re there, there was still there’s today There’s so much need. but the last day we’re there is. van pulls up. People would come to us for help right there in that parking lot. van pulled up little minivan with three elderly people in it.

There was a husband and wife with his sister. they were just getting back to the island and needed. They needed help. For her to be able to go back into her home because it was time for her to come home and We’re leaving I said I was I was heartbreaking. There’s nothing I can do I’ll come and take a look at your place and maybe refer you to somebody else, but there’s nobody else out there helping.

And so. We it’s unfortunate I mean if we had the funds We can still be there, but we just don’t. Well…

The description of the guy that has a trailer I mean there’s probably equal number of people that are just living in their cars If they if they even have a car you know it’s…

Mt a tragedy. And suffering is just on a scale that people just can’t understand It’s…

So. Is there any central resource that you see developing You know so these people that are you know that The, like you just described You know you’re leaving. You know there’s all these people that need these different things Is there anything online or…something that’s being created that allows people to go and, and tap into a single source? I find it confusing when I’m trying to find information. And there’s 20 different websites and there’s all these different social media platforms.

Is there any effort to centralize that…

There really isn’t. you know, Back in when I started getting when I got involved in this. in 2016, I I saw the same problem I mean I’m a systems guy I’m a data guy I built. Business intelligence systems and provide reporting and all of that and know how to do it. So I started doing that, for disasters.

And what I realized was…

It’s a traveling circus and they all know each other, and you’re not a part of the cabal until you’ve paid some price until you’ve bled and sweated with them and roll up your sleeves And they’re not going to use it. So I set it aside and said let me just show up. And that’s what I’ve been doing really hardcore since 2019. but 20, 21, 22, I mean, Ian was bad but it was equal to Aida and Laura they were all the same strength storms. I saw all of them as in-depth as you can.

and the, the Ian was bad. Ida was worse And Laura. even worse So, the, there. There isn’t and there never will be one system at least. Until there’s one organization that really becomes so efficient and effective that.

The others kind of just disappear. And that’s where we’re going And it’s…

It’s

…

Disasters are there life changing and people think. That there’s…

there’s an organization or there’s an entity that’s in charge. When somebody is in charge and just making sure everything’s happening and there’s not, disasters. I always say general honorees not going to ride in on a white horse and save the day. It’s disasters or bottom up. Disasters require the individuals that were impacted to be empowered, to fix it themselves as much as possible And then.

As efficiently as possible others can come in and help them and provide guidance along the way. But their bottom up. It’s a hard thing to understand When…today you’re getting tomorrow you’ve lost everything. Now you are in charge of your life in a way you have never been in charge of it before And people a lot of people can’t handle that and are overwhelmed And if we can go in and help them not be overwhelmed. and provide some guidance then…

You can. You can…

You can repair this a lot faster and that’s what we’re doing. we are trying to go bottom up and be on the ground and provide a helping hand and guidance for people and bring them home. And you know, Well…

The harness this traveling circus. Of disaster response organizations and the federal government and even state and even get to local governments, they kind of say well we have smart people in the community. and so what they form as longterm. groups that called LTR GS. And they’re supposed to consist of smart people in the community.

Who are capable and can help guide. That the disaster response Cause they live in the community They’re capable. The problem is. They’re not paid. They have jobs.

And, you know they don’t they haven’t done disasters before. And so think about the learning process it takes for anything You have to iterate a lot of times to really learn the right way Right. Yeah. But in the disaster situation you have people living in cars and tents You don’t have time to iterate You have to solve things very quickly. And…what they do is they throw money at things or.

They throw money at things basically And that money. Seems like it’s one the right direction but then it goes off You don’t see the results. It starts to go sideways. You got other stuff going on your kid’s got soccer kids got soccer and the job I have to go to work and this thing’s not working and say say well, you know, I’m going to be yet. And my fault.

And so they don’t have the time to do the iteration

…

That our page. This is a big problem. And it’s written into the Stafford act which is a FEMA doc to FEMA. Created by FEMA after Katrina. And it’s wrong.

It does not work. You have to have individuals that come in that know how disasters work. And can say, this is what should be happening because I’ve done it. 10 times this year and I’ve done it 50 times since I started doing this. And because I’ve made the mistakes and I can tell you that.

you know we’re, we’re actually active in Kentucky Our group is active in Kentucky Right now We have 10 people. Working repairing homes and working in Letcher county right now. that we direct and say don’t do that. That’s not impactful but we do this cause we seen it And. So…we can.

It’s going to take outside organizations to come in and direct it And the longterm recovery group idea is sounds good but it doesn’t work. That just doesn’t work You can see it here in Baton Rouge. I mean I know I helped create the one in Livingston parish. It did not work.

I think a lot of people don’t understand as Americans that you know FEMA provides assistance but the response is woefully supposed to be locally managed. Right So a lot of people citizens are standing there yelling at FEMA When I came I was just saying Hey we’re guiding the local organizations that are supposed to be prepared for this The counties are supposed to have these emergency plans and…the structure and the local resources and things like that. but Americans are so used to the government being there for them that. They they just they don’t understand how the structure is really set up. it the easy way to explain it.

I can. Nip that in the bed real quick to say. Have you ever been to the DMV? Right. V does not drive your car.

They simply, they do paperwork. That’s all FEMA does They just do paperwork They don’t drive your car Don’t think of FEMA as anything other than. They’re not your driving instructor. They simply are the DMV for new pastors That’s it. Yeah.

And I think you know the other thing that you maybe think of. You know we’ll wrap it up here. It was that. I have a hope that through. The experience of guys like you that, you know there can be some.

Deeper. Partnership between the federal government county governments and the NGOs that have all of this experience. Where when something like this happens there’s almost like a consulting team that comes in and…

works with them preemptively to, to bring the community organization component to the. to the equation. In a way that’s really going to be effective and help people understand you know I know you’ve got a nice plan on paper over here but let’s, let’s revisit how this is really going to happen because that plan is going to fall apart in the first 12 hours of this. coming to shore. So you know what do we need to be doing this That’s really going to be impactful and practical.

When there’s no lights there’s no power There’s no fuel. You know, No food, things like that. Where do we begin with that level of…community support? So, what do you have Just a question for you I mean, What would you say What would help the occasion? maybe ground force the most Like what would be the number one thing that you could use in it?

Number two, what would you like to see happen and disaster response? You know in the next five or 10 years…

You know I don’t talk. To the. Official entities We We have gotten everything we’ve ever needed We don’t ask for much. If anything really yet At the state level we really don’t just don’t get in our way. the parking lot we picked for hurricane Ian.

It turns out FEMA had already pegged that to be a distribution center for them but when they saw us there they just went someplace else. like we were there before they were. And. I mean…there’s we have our hands full and we have a very effective we have three. We have four programs…

And they all work in unison. To bring…

relief. The first one is safe We call it safe camp swift action force emergency camp, and think mash a forward operating place for us to show up and provide a safe place. For volunteers and for the community and provide food And so the distribution center medical we’re working on mental health. And then that’s about two weeks. While that’s going on.

If we have enough. Systems in place We’re not quite there yet We would like to be doing our second program which is called community care-taking…lately What we’ve been doing is starting community caretaking after safe camp really? Because I don’t have enough funding to do community care-taking during safe camp. Can we. terror cake safe camps where everybody comes to us.

Community caretaking is where we go into the community. So safe campus just really highly hyper focused on one location. But when it’s done like we went to pine island and we started going out and doing…assessments and helping people in their homes listing refrigerators We did that. Cleaning trees from yard trapping reus

moving cars clearing her outs everything that the physical labor, that’s community caretaking as well as the mental health and medical. then we have our remote team that manages us remotely, keeps the communications going Does our social media updates. Those are reports, that’s volunteers So many things Our remote team does all of them work together. The fourth one. Because media and journalism.

And we in a way our social media influencers the more people we reach the more impact we have there’s a direct correlation. The the more, the more the longer we stay. the longer. the longer we. Tell stories the longer we can stay.

Yeah. That’s a really important component to us as well And…we’re developing training programs for all of those that will have a pre. Train the force of people good Americans that want to go out and help paid unpaid volunteers. We’ve developed the March type of the individuals that we want to respond And…so we’re just getting better and better and better every disaster And

That’s…in a nutshell what we do it’s not brain science but it’s definitely. You got to pay a price to. Understand all of the moving parts and how to, how to put the right things in place that have an impact. Yeah. So I’d love to encourage people to check out Rob.

if you’re watching this and you’ve made it this far in the video you obviously have an interest in this topic. check out Rob’s book it’s on Amazon It’s I think it was less than nine. It is, your About 120 pages So it’s a, a quick read but it starts all the way back from the first time that you ever did anything. I think the story goes she picked up a chainsaw and you went and helped somebody And that was kind of like the beginning of this whole thing. Walks through to some really through each of the disasters that you’ve participated in.

And then the second thing I would say to people that are watching this if you are interested in this and you have the.

the resources and volunteer you know the more people. that can get there and do this type of work under the umbrella of you know occasionally the ground force. Then, you know the faster the the larger the relief efforts going to be for people. And if you can’t be there, That’s okay too. If you’ve got 10 bucks 20 bucks a hundred bucks $10,000 If you’re wealthy.

Then you know give something to, you know you know Rob’s team that can make a difference so they can stay. They can do the 10, 12, 6 months. You know or longer type efforts to you know to reach these people that have just lost everything. And Robert we certainly appreciate you taking the time out to talk with us. And share your story You know you’re a national.

We call you a hero but she probably would like to title but I mean you really got it’s out there just doing it and there’s not too many of you guys that are actually making it happen. day in and day out So thank you very much and

good luck to you because we know there’s going to be another one It’s just a matter of time…

Yeah. Thank you Thanks for thanks for the conversation It’s good. I said I just haven’t gotten married and getting back from our honeymoon. Had a little time off and it’s good to, it’s good to get my juices going and And thinking about what I’m going to be tackling over the next few months, getting ready for this upcoming disaster season So good conversation or can students right around the corner from me a couple months away Right? Right around the corner.

thanks everybody

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All right we’re done…

Good stuff

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