Thank you! (and some final thoughts)

Welcome and thank you to everyone for your help. This blog was set up to allow you to contribute and follow the progress of our mission to help Katrina's victims. This site is where you could follow our progress in attaining the possible.

Your contributions went 100% to the purchase and transportation of life sustaining water to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As of the date of this post your contributions have topped out over $50,000! That's huge!

At final count we delivered 104 pallets of water (that is 17,472 cases of water, think of one case per person and that's 17,472 people helped.) Wow! what an immediate and direct impact from the efforts of a small group of people. I thank you. The people of Mississippi and Louisiana thank you.

Your donations of money to facilitate the purchase of palletized, shrinkwrapped water made this happen. We have worked very closely with Zephyrhills Water Co. to supply us the product at or near cost in the proper format. Go Zephyrhills! However, they can no longer supply us with product due to commitments to FEMA. So we are out of the water business for now.

We are tossing around some other ideas on how to help and are considering adopting a town, or trying to facilitate adopting families. If you are interested please let me know.

So we are drawing this effort to a close. Please no more donations. Again thank you to everyone for their efforts and contributions. An extra special thanks to the Vigrass Family for all their support and contribution. Clayton you did a great job!

You all are wonderful.

Sean W. Scott.

Photos of Trip Two

More photos from the last trip to Miss. are here. Click to go to the Kodak Picture site to view the photos. Check out our trucker Jerry who was so kind to donate his time and efforts to drive our load. You rock Jerry!

Offloading Water in Rural Miss.

Interestingly enough, since we are not "FEMA" water we are not restricted to how and who we can release our water. The EOC folks tasked us out to Poplarville MS to deliver our water. When we arrived we were again met with a parking lot of FEMA trucks just waiting. The guardsmen that were there reported that they were getting frustrated because they did not have orders to release any of the product. When we arrived they unloaded us immediately and would begin to disperse the water since they did not need orders to hand out our water. We were very happy to again see that our efforts were making a difference.

Good News Bad News

Good news, unlike our last trip where we were the only trucks with water, this time there were over 78 trucks of water! That's the good news. The bad news, it does not appear to be going anywhere. Speaking with the truckers, some had been there for three or more days just waiting to be dispersed. We are concerned that we may be stuck here for some time.

In the Air

This trip we took advantage of our prior experience and connections to get the truck loaded and postioned in Mobile Alabama. Barry, our benefactor for this load, then flew us to Mobile where we met the truck and then continued to Mississippi. Everything went smooth and the timing was spot on, until we hit the 15 mile long traffic jam. One of the bridges was out and traffic had been rerouted to one lane. Very slow. This put us into the staging area late and forced us to spend the night in the truck. Oh well, everything was going too smoothly.

Off Again.

It's 6:30 am and we are off again to deliver another truck load of water. More on our efforts soon.

More Photos

Photos of the first trip to deliver water to the relief area are here. They are a little better than the photos taken with the cell phone.

Here We Go Again! (and a challenge)

We talked about sustainable, the ability to repeat what has already been done, in a recent post and bam, another special individual has stepped up and donated 26 more pallets of water! Barry Seiwart called just moments ago and wanted to be part of the effort and contribute in some small way toward relieving the suffering of others. His small way was to donate an entire semi trailer, 26 pallets, 113,000 bottles of water. We will move this water in the next 24 to 36 hours. My challenge to those reading this...do not let us take just one truck to Mississippi. Lets make it at least two or more trucks!

Home!

We are all home safe and sound. Stay tuned for more photos that I will upload now that I am back where I have direct internet and am not relying on the cell phone. Off to a warm meal. But first Many Thanks to the team, Ken, Rick, Al, Kevin, William, Chris and Clayton! You guys were spectacular! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Sean.

Sustainability

I spoke with Dana this afternoon and she indicated that there are still some donations coming in. The experience we gained on this trip, the who, where and, what makes re-doing it very easy. But as the story goes all it takes is money. We are ready to go again. We are ready to be an extension of your desire to make a difference. And you can make a difference, remember but for us there would have been no water for six Mississppi counties on Saturday. Show that you want us to go and we will go again.

Homeward Bound

Whew...yesterday was a long day. The team performed flawlessly, but it was sure nice to find the pillow at about 1 am. We are now on the way back to Tampa and should arrive at about 5pm.

We are headed home! Yesterday was exhausting for all of us in the trucks. Heat,humidity and the emotions of the moment were all running high. All of us relished the pillow when we finally found a hotel outside of Pensacola.

This morning up at sunrise and into the trucks. This is the easy part.

Nothing that has been accomplished to date could have been done without the support of the "team" of which each of you are a huge part.

Yesterday was an amazing day. Seeing the water being loaded onto the blackhawks and them taking off...wow! Later that nite we were headed out of the relief area we stopped for dinner and there in the usa today paper box was a photo of the blackhawks dropping water to the victims. Really hit home hard how importany our mission is.

The Team

Food and Water

Water comin off the truck

Water and Choppers

The immeadiacy of the event was astounding. Its 6:00 pm and we are coming home. Bam. Bam. Bam. The Maryland National Guard Engineers were fantastic. What a spirit. It had to be at least 95 degrees and 100 percent humidity, they jumped on the loads and moved em out

Gas is a big issue.

Chinook Heilo

Donations

Since we are still in the trucks we have not been able to check on the status of donations. Please consider helping. Should we have excess contributions we will go again with water or other supplies. Note that the amazon site only tracks those donations made through the amozon site.

Unloading at the Airport

We were dispatched to the Stennis Airport for unloading and immediate distribution of water. The water literally went from the trucks into heliclopters and out to people.

Running with our Escort

The trip in.

We have been tasked to go to Stennis space center. The interstate coming in is littered with abandoned cars that had run out of fuel. Many trees are blown down. You can see where the water had covered the interstate in many places. In one particular location the smell of rotting fish was overpowering. We could only guess this where the sea had come in and out stranding fish in the woods.

Also along the way there were lines of individual cars backed up and each exit waiting for gas.

Arrival at Stennis

After an escorted trip to Stennis, we arrived to find the nasa facility being used to shelter folks who had lost everything. One of the first people we met had nothing but her two kids and her parrot. One of the relief worker's entire villege is gone, completely wiped out. The halls of this nasa facility were filled with person after person airlifted from New Orleans and surrounding areas.

Once we checked in, no easy task in the confusion, we were staged again for unloading. We were split up with one truck going to a warehouse to be unloaded by forklift, and the other two to the Stennis airport. From here the water was slingloaded directly to blackhawk helicopters for airlifting direct to people on the ground. The choppers literally are putting water into the hands of the thirsty. Envision people on the ground with signs that say help and choppers coming in with water slung underneath. This is exactly what is happening.

Interestingly enough, we had a chance to look at the traffic sheet and talked to people on the ground who said while the first couple days 70 to 80 trucks of water arrived each day. Yesterday 4. Today we believe we represented well over 100 percent of the water as of 3:30 pm. Mind you the nature of the supply change is like an accordian, we helped out immensly during a lull period.

Kevin Drivin

The fhp just informed me that cell service ends at Mobile. So we will be out of touch after that. Kevin is in the driver's seat now and looking good.

Movin

We are underway to the next leg of the effort. Fhp are taking us all the way to our destination. Dana you should not worry. For once I have the flashing lights in front of me instead of from behind.

Meeting our escort.

Got to the border and paused for a little sleep and to wait for our fhp escort. The crew is up and we are planing to leave at 8 oclock central time. Rigs are running fine and we are very eager to get to our destination.

Loaded and moving.

Stay tuned for more photo posts. They can take awhile to process. Just a quick note to say we are loaded with pallets of water and have passed Tallahassee. It is 2:40.

Rick Cowan

Rig 2 driver. Great guy. Tireless. Ready to help always.

William Muhlstadt

Transportation specialist, and Peterbilt driver. If it rolls, skates, slides or floats William can seem to make it materialize. William was my goto guy and first person that we thought of when putting our team together. Thank you William for believing the impossible to be possible.

Thumbs up!

Loaded in record time. In and out 30 minutes. Thanks to Christy Mcintyr from zhills. Way to set us up. Everything went super smooth.

Chris Davis in Action

We call Chris our government affairs liason. He keeps us connected to the EOC and FEMA. An amazing asset on the team

Fully loaded

26 pallets per truck.

At the loading dock.

Its 1:00 am and were done loading. Heres the numbers...46,294 lbs of water per truck. 4368 cases per truck times three! 314,496 bottles total.

10 o'clock update

Photo from the Peterbilt. Ahead of schedule. Don't think we will make the 2 oclock national guard convoy, loks like the 8 am convoy will be us. Recent events require us to get escort to New Orleans from Pensacola. What a sad state of affairs that has Americans shooting at other Americans trying to help.

Ken Whittington

Ken is VP of opetations at Roadmaster and driver of Rig No. 1. His help and support has been invaluable.

Clayton Vigrass

Picture of Clayton Vigrass, neighbor and CFO for Willis Insurance aka the boyscout loading supplies for the drivers.

Al Sr. (aka angel)

Al is president of Roadmaster Driving School and has come through in the largest of ways in putting water into the hands of those who are thirsty. Thanks again Al.

Never underestimate the power of intention

Here are the three trucks prior to departure from Tampa.

Super Kevin

Let me tell you about one very special person: Kevin Coulombe. He is the owner operator of the Peterbilt truck I am riding in right now. Kevin has stepped up and made his vehicle available to haul the water. His wife, Laurie is at home waiting for his safe return. ( Kevin says hi.) Kevin's contribution of his time and equipment is yet another testament to the heart and will of the people of this country. Will send a photo when it gets light.

We are underway.

We are officially underway with three tractor trailers. Roadmaster yet again has come through. We still needed a trailer as of 5pm but Al and Ken stepped up AGAIN and supplied the third trailer. We now have a full compliment. Our first stop, Zephyrhills water distibution center, 4 hours from now, in north Florida. We are posting this from the truck and will continue updates as long as we have cell service. Update on the Salvation Army...we are planing to take their loads as soon as we get back. Thank you again for everyone support and participation. Stay tuned.

More Thank Yous!

The love and kindness and support keeps coming. Thank yous go out to Betsy Angevine from California, David Luczak, Heather Womersley, Realty Exchange Title Services, the Cypress Palms Support Group, Francessca Blackwood from London, Gary Theisen from Denver, Louisa Wu from San Francisco, H.C. Sumrall, Jim and Christie LaPiana and Karen Karle. Thank you again for all your contributions. You are having a direct and immediate effect on lives less fortunate.

Departure Info

Looks like a 5:00 departure from Tampa Farigrounds. The Emergency Operations Center has indicated that we may have to convoy with security personel into the Mississippi due to potential security issues and violence. Looks like things are getting intersting. EOC will keep us informed of the specifics enroute.

Unbelievable News! One More Truck of Water!!

In every big operation there are some small setbacks...but then there are also great leaps forward. Roadmaster just informed me that want to contribute over and above their already generous contribution. Initially they pledged a truck and trailer to transport our water. Minutes ago Ken and Al indicated that they want to buy a whole trailer full of water and donate the truck to move it! UNBELIEVABLE. Their act of kindness left me speechless with tears in my eyes. Thank you Al, Ken and all of the Roadmaster Company. This makes three trucks of water equaling over 340,000 bottles of water. WOW!

Total Donations at This Moment - $12,631!

In addition to the online donations we have also received an outpouring of assistance directly by check, some from as far away as Malaysia. Thank you to everyone including: Keith Thomas, Rachel McGuire, Vitus Ponzo, Walter Miller, Nicola Boon, James Lewis, Suzane Augustin, Belle Lee, Prof. Rebecca Morgan,and Sheila Stamps, That enough for 113,000 bottles of water. Anyone want to buy a whole truck full?

If I missed your name please let me know and please accept my appologies. Sean.

New Pay Pal Option to Donate

Since there has been a $50.00 limitation in online donation through Amazon, we have added a second online donation option through pay pal. The donate button is just under the Amazon button on the right sidebar of this page.