Arrived in Little Rock, AR

Greetings y'all!

We arrived here in Little Rock about 5:00pm. The last 200 miles were tough - we went through the tail end of the storm and caught heavy rain and strong winds. It was a very long trip.

The first thing we did when we arrived was meet with Red Cross officials to make sure that the emergency response vehicle we drove down was cleared to enter the disaster zone. Once we got the OK it was off to Sams club to get a pallet of water and bulk foods, mainly snack items. We will be deployed with about nine other ERVs to Baton Rouge around 7am. Our main mission is to be "truckers" shuttling bulk supplies to drop stations for delivery into the disaster zone.

We will have photos to share in the near future.

Thank every one for your continued support - we will make our Vermonters proud!

On the Road in Lebanon, TN

Each day, as communications allow, volunteers from the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross will share their experiences and thoughts. Today Shawn Conley and Steve Pernicka talked to us from Lebanon, Tennessee en route to the affected areas.

We have been on the road for over thirty hours now and we hope to get to the initial Red Cross staging area in Little Rock, Arkansas by 3pm. We just talked to the coordinators of the relief effort and they told us that if we get there by 3pm they are going to load us up with food and supplies and send us directly to Louisiana.

We are a little concerned about travel as the storm is passing over us in Tennessee right now. Winds are gusting to 45mph and some trees are down so we may not make it across prior to 3pm. If we pull in late they tell us that they will shelter us overnight and select our assignment at daybreak tomorrow.

We are feeling good and are ready to go, even after all this travel. Last night when we finally got off the highway we had a chance to watch the television reports and we came to really understand the scope of this disaster. We are both apprehensive and energized as we head out today.

Steve & Shawn