Joys of Life: Christmas Chaos

I hadn’t planned on another entry this soon but the events of the past 24 hours said I had to do it. I listened so here it is.

I survived the family gathering on Tuesday. Cookies were delivered and enjoyed. A good time was had by all. My daughter was having a little bit of tummy trouble but still managed to have a good time.

Wednesday starts slowly but gets going good when Angela and I started working on the Christmas tree. It’s small, and not the prettiest but she likes it so I am happy.

I mentioned CHAOS, didn’t I? That is not C.H.A.O.S. from the Get Smart series. I am talking about the real deal.

The chain of CHAOS started when we left the house. Sold out screening of the Squeakquel? Christmas shopping? Massive crowds of procrastinators who are scrambling for that last minute gift? Long lines at the register? Traffic? Yes to all of the above but that’s to be expected for the 23^rd of December. That’s not the kind of CHAOS that has my mind twisted in knots right now.

I had been promising Angela a trip to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. We pulled up to the theater about twenty minutes later than planned. I had to scramble to keep up with Angela as she raced to get in line for the tickets. Sold out! From conversations I’m hearing I learn that several of the people were waiting for tickets for the screening after the one that hadn’t even started yet. That screening wouldn’t be over before I was supposed to have Angela at her mother’s so I turned her around and we went back to the car.

My insanity surfaces and I turn the car in the direction of Wal Mart. Ought to be as exciting as the movie would have been. Here we go. Park in the next county. Break out the hiking gear. Make sure our canteens are full. Start hiking for the door.

Honestly? It wasn’t that bad inside. We picked up the few food items that we needed (I still have to finish the cookies for non-family) and a few other odds and ends. We were headed for the checkout line when that pesky old CHAOS bug started chirping. ThWzsaxedfcrvgthb

(Pardon me. Remember the tomcat? He just typed that. Off to the bathroom he goes!)

Anyway… The bug chose to use my cell phone to do its chirping:

“Hello?”

“ Mike? Where are you?”

“Wal Mart. Why?”

“Gayle Manor just got hit by a tornado. The storm is headed this way. It should go North of where you are. Don’t come home.”

Deciding that this would be a good time to follow motherly advice, I did the smartest thing I knew to do. The storm was still 20 miles away so I checked out, got the kiddo to the car and headed south. I bought Angela a kid’s meal and we hung around in town and until it was time to take her to her mother’s apartment. I gave her a hug and sent her inside.

As it turned out no more twisters dropped out of the cell until it was about forty miles past us so we COULD have gone home but I’m not sorry we didn’t. Better to be safe.

Where’s the chaos? Surely that wasn’t it.

No. Not really. It wasn’t. As nerve wracking as the thought of a tornado racing towards my house and my parents having to take shelter is, that passed as with the storm. I couldn’t do anything about Gayle Manor or for any of the residents.

The real CHAOS started as soon as I walked into the office at 10:30. Before I even made it to my chair Sgt. Jeff was calling about a fight at Wal Mart and screamed for backup. I sat down at the console and heard the sonic boom caused by the evening shift dispatchers as they fled for their cars.

911 was ringing before the boom stopped echoing. It rang. It rang. It kept ringing. Two wrecks, two assaults, and a burglary later it finally stopped. The non-emergency lines kept going but most of that was minor and wasn’t anything to give to the officers.

In the midst of all of this was the weather. Texas is known for wild weather and Northeast Texas does wild as well as any other part of the state. The weather in particular included rain, wind, and hail. Wind = tornadoes. There were constant tornado warnings issued for counties and parishes within 75 miles of my area until four o’clock. We were under a warning at one point but that cell stayed just out of the county. I spent all of this time dividing my attention between the insanity that shouldn’t be before dawn on Christmas Eve and the local CBS station that had surrendered all air time to the meteorological staff. I was determined that my units would have as much warning as possible if we got hit a second time.

CHAOS for five hours!

Four A.M.! All is quiet. All of the rough weather is across the state line and no longer a threat to any place I am responsible for. I am worn out. Punch drunk. No phone, radio, or 911 traffic for ten minutes nearly puts me to sleep in my chair. Peace. Dispatch is happy. Dispatch is able to check e-mail and start the latest episode of Fullmetal Alchemist. Dispatch heats up supper.

5:30! 911 rings. As I reach for the receiver I see that the call is coming from one of my co-worker’s cell phone. Uh oh. He begins screaming as soon as he hears my voice. “MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE. WE’RE TRYING TO GET OUT!” All of my 911 lines start ringing before I can even finish paging the fire department. The house is fully engulfed and the noise of the fire has woken neighbors three blocks away.

Has he been able to get his family out? I don't know. The neighbors don't know.

Two minutes later a small town to in the north part of the county loses power. Non-emergency calls from alarm companies start flooding in.

911 starts up again. Still more calls on the fire. Mixed in are calls of another wreck.

CHAOS. Christmas Eve. CHAOS. Christmas Eve. I have worked this shift for probably a dozen of the last seventeen Christmas Eves. I have never seen one like this. Don’t forget. This is just the first six hours of the holiday.

45 minutes later a dispatcher from day shift showed up a little early and found me to be a tearful, mind-fried blob in the chair. I had been praying for strength and lasted until she got there. CHAOS.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “This is another ‘Joys of Life’ entry. Isn’t it?”

Yes. It is. The “joys” part of this is not meant to be sarcastic. It has taken me a good bit of the day to get here but I can see the joys in last night. Allow me to list them.

1. Angela walked away from the theater without as much as a tear and was smiling. I know how badly she wants to see the new chipmunk movie. A child who is that good natured is truly a joy!
2. The tornado that touched down in the Gayle Manor area damaged a lot of homes and businesses. NO ONE was hurt. That joy is nothing short of a miracle.
3. Angela and I still managed to have a good time. She got to spend time at our church playing with several of her friends before the service started. We had to leave and miss the service but that didn’t matter to her. I was happy to see her having such a good time and also because I got to visit with several of my church family members that I haven’t seen much because of my work schedule and my demotion to single parent status. More joy.
4. The storms that came through in the late night hours didn’t seem to be causing much damage in the areas outside of my county despite the tornado warnings (have not heard of any confirmed sightings). The only damage I know of in my county was one tree that fell across a road. No significant damage means less suffering. Joy!
   
5. The first wreck I had to dispatch was a very serious one. One of the cars had slid sideways into a tree and the lady was hurt badly. The Jaws of Life weren’t enough to free her from the wreckage. Fire and EMS personnel had to cut the car apart to get her out. I got a call from her son during the period between the storms and the fire. She is going to be in the hospital a while but is doing much better than was expected. She had many fewer broken bones than originally thought and evidently wasn’t going to need surgery. Mixed joy but still a joy.
6. Now for the major JOY! Martin and his family made it out of the house safely. When I called the sheriff to let him know about the fire I didn’t have to tell him that Martin, his wife, or one of their kids had been lost. They only got out with what they were wearing but they are being taken care of. I have learned that people from our office are surrounding them and meeting their needs. I imagine their community is doing the same but I haven’t heard any details about that yet.

Christmas Chaos? Definitely. No question about it.

It was bad. It could have been much, much worse. I am thankful. Joy is sometimes hard to find but it is there if you will look for it.

EPILOGUE:
I posted this and went to bed without viewing the post. It turns out that the stupid old CHAOS bug took one more swipe at me. I had typed this up in a word processor and pasted it here rather than doing it straight from my browser. All of the formatting got messed up. The numbered list didn't show right, some of the text was actually deleted, and the second space between every sentence simply disappeared. I have spent an hour correcting these mistakes and making minor revisions, some of which I wouldn't have thought to do if the post had looked right the first time. I refuse to lose the joy!