that-fema-corps-blog
That (Unofficial) FEMA Corps Blog
I spent a year in AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps and wanted to talk about it! Opinions expressed here are not necessarily representative of that of AmeriCorps or any other organization.
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Day 356
July 24, 2023
The final day. We were out of the dorms by 7:30 for room inspections. We turned in our room key cards we got a few days ago and our old key cards from the first day we arrived on campus. We waited in the main building until we had to line up outside by team and last name at 9:30.
Graduation went pretty quickly. A couple corps members sang the national anthem, one gave a speech about serving in AmeriCorps, the corps member and team leader of the class were announced, we watched a recording a congressperson made for us, etc... I'll probably elaborate later, but for now I'm busy and tired. We received our AmeriCorps completion certificates, changed and dropped our boots and uniforms in the back of a couple trucks, and packed the remainder of our stuff into the vans. We said our final goodbyes and departed.
There's one song I first heard back in the Corps Training Institute, and have come to strongly associate with this program after all the road trips, flights, and time away from home. I think it would only be fitting to end the year with it too:
youtube
And with that, it's time for me to go home. It's been quite the year.
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Day 355
July 23, 2023
We went to Emerald Pools today.
I'm very tired, so I'm not going to elaborate much. We did see a baby rattlesnake, though.
We had a final team dinner and spent the rest of the day packing, cleaning, and loading our stuff into the vans.
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Day 354
July 22, 2023
We went back to San Francisco again! We stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts, the same place from Day 33:
We walked out to Crissy Field Beach. I heard a pygmy nuthatch on the way over.
This San Francisco Fire Department vessel came by. We figure they might have been doing a drill for putting out a coastal fire? Each of the three spouts seems to operate independently:
We watched the fire boat and several windersurfers before heading to the south part of the beach. This side had dozens of dogs. We watched them play for close to half an hour. I saw a lone male surf scoter swimming behind them in the bay.
We drove a few miles into the city for lunch and departed not long after. Glad we spent the day away, especially considering how miserably hot it is in Sacramento. Today was supposed to have a high of over 110⁰F...
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Day 353
July 21. 2023
We had our tech check-in at 10:00. We removed the cases from the iPhone and iPad and unlocked them so the staff could check that they still worked. We had to return the following (they didn't care about the mouse, car charger, or earphones):
iPad
iPhone
Laptop
PIV card
Tech case
iPad case
iPhone case
iPad charger
iPhone charger
I dropped my red bag off at the van for the supply check-in at 11:00. I had Life After AmeriCorps (LAA) specialty role meeting at the same time in the main room. Each team's LAA representative gathered to provide our feedback on the role and resources Corps members could benefit from, including:
Financial planning and life skills from the start/round 1-2 transition (apartment hunting, saving and 401k, etc.)
More exposure to FEMA and other governmental jobs earlier in the year (takes a while to apply)
Mentorship from AmeriCorps alumni on LAA role and general participation in AmeriCorps
Forum on My AmeriCorps for current members and alumni
I met the rest of the team at the Operations building to help finish cleaning the van and unload kitchen kits and other equipment. Operations inspected the vans and told us to park them in the back. They wanted to throw away a bunch of plates and other things in the kitchen kit, so we took the extras for relocation; a lot of the kitchen supplies would be useful for future teams.
There was a Corps member feedback session at 13:30. Only one or two people from each team were supposed to go, so I wasn't there. Several of us met with the assistant unit leader (UL) afterward to discuss some issues/concerns with part of the program. I won't go into specifics, but it does seem like the assistant UL is going to make the program better going forward. The few changes implemented for the new classes already seem like an improvement.
Our entire class met in the main room immediately afterward at 16:30 to rehearse the graduation ceremony. We practiced the AmeriCorps pledge several times; judging how the pledge went last project transition, this was a very good idea... Then we had the rest of the day off.
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Day 352
July 20, 2023
Another job application before "work." We had a community meeting at 9:30 in the main building and were instructed to wear our gray AmeriCorps T-shirts. Most of the AmeriCorps staff were new or unfamiliar to us, so we got them to introduce themselves. We reviewed what we'd be doing during graduation, then listened to staff announcements. We were told that FEMA is switching its service provider... Only a day or two before we turn in our government phones. Not the best timing.
The next couple hours were the "AmeriLympics": kickball, water balloon fights, and other activities. I went shopping for an extra suitcase and took a nap instead.
We changed into our formal FEMA outfits. The two Seattle teams practiced for the round 4 debrief around noon. We listened to another team's debrief before presenting. Everything went pretty smoothly; by this point we're used to talking about our projects and giving these presentations. We had pizza waiting for us afterward, and we were allowed to change back into our regular clothes.
We had an awards banquet back in the main building at 16:00. We got back the letters we wrote ourselves on Day 20. We sat in teams and were called to go to a photo area with simple props and a white background screen with AmeriCorps logos. Then we got a somewhat odd buffet-style dinner from the other side. The AmeriCorps staff put on a PowerPoint trivia game and a rock-paper-scissors competition.
We watched the round 4 team videos, and team members were recognized for specialty roles and informal team roles. Some of them got AmeriCorps water bottles. The team leader of the year was nominated. Everyone got an AmeriCorps pin, a white AmeriCorps alumni T-shirt, and the President's Volunteer Service Award. Or... most of us did. Some of the service awards hadn't arrived yet and will supposedly be mailed later. Members who applied received their congressional awards.
A few of us had an informal team meeting and later left to get groceries, dinner, and dessert; the awards banquet wasn't particularly filling, and we've still got money left to spend.
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Day 351
July 19, 2023
Mostly a housekeeping day. Applied for more jobs and tried planning some stuff for when I'll get home. We started to clean the vans, but it looks like we'll finish up tomorrow.
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FEMA Corps Blog List: Round 1
8/3/2022 – 11/6/2022
Corps Training Institute
Sacramento, CA
8/3/2022 – 8/25/2022
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13: Old Town Sacramento, CA
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
FEMA Corps Basic Academy
Sacramento, CA
8/29/2022 – 9/3/2022
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Day 31
Day 32
Day 33: San Francisco, CA
Day 34
Road Trip
California to Washington, D.C.
9/6/2022 – 9/11/2022
Day 35: Mojave Desert, CA
Day 36: Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
Day 37: Cadillac Ranch, TX
Day 38: Memphis Pyramid, TN
Day 39
Day 40: Shenandoah National Park, VA
Supplemental Response Teams
Washington, D.C.
9/14/2022 – 9/27/2022
Day 41
Day 42
Day 43
Day 44
Day 45
Day 46
Day 47
Day 48
Day 49
Day 50: Alexandria, VA
Day 51
Day 52: Alternative Dispute Resolution Training, MD
Day 53: National Postal & History Museums, D.C.
Day 54
Day 55
Day 56
Day 57
Disaster Recovery Center
Hurricane Fiona, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
10/3/2022 – 10/29/2022
Day 58
Day 59
Day 60
Day 61
Day 62
Day 63
Day 64
Day 65
Day 66
Day 67
Day 68: Playa La Poza del Obispo, PR
Day 69
Day 70: The Birds and the… Other Birds
Day 71
Day 72
Day 73
Day 74
Day 75
Day 76
Day 77
Day 78
Day 79
Day 80
Day 81
Day 82: Isla de Vieques, PR
Day 83
Day 84
Day 85
Day 86
Day 87
Day 88
Day 89
AmeriCorps Round 1 – 2 Transition
Puerto Rico
10/31/2022 – 11/5/2022
Day 90
Day 91
Day 92
Day 93
Day 94
Day 95
Day 96
round 2 ->
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FEMA Corps Blog List: Round 2
11/7/2022 – 2/14/2023
<- round 1
Disaster Recovery Center (pt. 2)
Hurricane Fiona, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
11/7/2022 – 11/29/2022
Day 97
Day 98
Day 99
Day 100
Day 101: Playa La Poza del Obispo, PR
Day 102
Day 103
Day 104
Day 105
Day 106
Day 107
Day 108
Day 109
Day 110
Day 111
Day 112
Day 113
Day 114
Day 115
Day 116: Unknown Location, PR
Day 117
Day 118
Day 119
Day 120
Environmental Planning & Historic Preservation
San Juan, Puerto Rico
12/1/2022 – 2/4/2023
Day 121
Day 122: Caguas, PR
Day 123: Fajardo/Ceiba/Luquillo, PR
Day 124
Day 125
Day 126
Day 127
Day 128: Naranjito, PR
Day 129: Las Piedras, PR
Day 130
Day 131
Day 132
Day 133: Corozal, PR
Day 134
Day 135: Corozal, PR
Day 136
Day 137-152: Rotation/Winter Break
Day 153
Day 154
Day 155
Day 156
Day 157
Day 158
Day 159
Day 160
Day 161: Las Piedras, PR
Day 162
Day 163
Day 164
Day 165: San Cristóbal Canyon, PR
Day 166
Day 167: MLK Day of Service, PR
Day 168: Vega Alta, PR
Day 169
Day 170: Vega Alta, PR
Day 171: EHP policies
Day 172
Day 173
Day 174
Day 175: Lares, PR
Day 176
Day 177
Day 178: EHP policies
Day 179: Birding in San Juan, PR
Day 180: A real-life shiny!
Day 181
Day 182
Day 183
Day 184
Day 185: EHP policies & closeout
Day 186: Jardín Botánico de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, PR
Flights & Road Trip
Puerto Rico to Puerto Rico
2/5/2023 – 2/8/2023
Day 187: Puerto Rico to New Mexico
Day 188: New Mexico & Utah
Day 189: Utah
Day 190: Nevada & California
Team Shuffle / AmeriCorps Round 2 – 3 Transition
Sacramento, California
2/9/2023 – 2/14/2023
Day 191: 200 birds on the life list!
Day 192
Day 193
Day 194
Day 195
Day 196: Federal Hiring Prep
round 3 ->
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FEMA Corps Blog List: Round 3
2/15/2023 – 5/9/2023
<- round 2
Road Trip 3
California to Florida
2/15/2023 – 2/20/2023
Day 197
Day 198: Grand Canyon, AZ
Day 199: New Mexico, Texas, & Oklahoma
Day 200: Petit Jean State Park, AR
Day 201: Memphis, TN
Day 202
Public Assistance Site Inspector Training
Orange County, Florida
2/21/2023 – 3/2/2023
Day 203
Day 204
Day 205
Day 206: Transitioning applicants & inspection procedures
Day 207
Day 208
Day 209
Day 210
Day 211
Day 212
Public Assistance
Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers, Florida
3/3/2023 – 4/25/2023
Day 213
Day 214
Day 215
Day 216
Day 217
Day 218
Day 219
Day 220
Day 221
Day 222: Six Mile Creek Slough Preserve, FL
Day 223
Day 224
Day 225
Day 226
Day 227
Day 228: The Everglades, FL
Day 229
Day 230
Day 231
Day 232
Day 233
Day 234
Day 235
Day 236
Day 237
Day 238
Day 239
Day 240
Day 241
Day 242: Siesta Key, FL
Day 243
Day 244
Day 245
Day 246
Day 247: Disaster Inventory Inspection Peer Reviews
Day 248
Day 249
Day 250
Day 251: USGS National Map Corps
Day 252
Day 253
Day 254
Day 255
Day 256-264
Day 265
Day 266
Road Trip 4
Florida to California
4/26/2023 – 5/1/2023
Day 267: Atlanta, GA
Day 268
Day 269: Chicago, IL
Day 270: Nebraska and Wyoming
Day 271: Salt Flats, UT
Day 272
AmeriCorps Round 3 – 4 Transition
Sacramento, CA
5/2/2023 – 5/9/2023
Day 273
Day 274: Round 3 Celebration
Day 275
Day 276: Life After AmeriCorps Day
Day 277
Day 278
Day 279
Day 280
round 4 ->
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FEMA Corps Blog List: Round 4
5/10/2023 – 7/24/2023
<- round 3
Road Trip 5
CA to WA
5/10/2023 – 5/11/2023
Day 281: Glass Beach & Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, CA
Day 282: Oregon & Washington
Hazard Mitigation Community Profiles
Seattle, WA
5/12/2023 – 7/14/2023
Day 283: Gas Works Park, WA
Day 284: Big Day at Discovery Park, WA
Day 285: Washington Park Arboretum, WA
Day 286
Day 287
Day 288
Day 289
Day 290
Day 291
Day 292
Day 293
Day 294
Day 295
Day 296: News and building codes
Day 297
Day 298
Day 299: Dirty Harry’s Balcony, WA
Day 300
Day 301
Day 302: The Cascadia subduction zone
Day 303
Day 304: Golden Gardens Park, WA
Day 305: Olympic National Park, Forks, & La Push, WA
Day 306
Day 307: Disaster operations in Alaska
Day 308
Day 309
Day 310
Day 311
Day 312: Deception Pass, WA
Day 313
Day 314: Mount Vernon, WA
Day 315
Day 316: Mobile Emergency Response Support
Day 317
Day 318
Day 319: Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, WA
Day 320
Day 321
Day 322
Day 323
Day 324
Day 325
Day 326: Devil's Punchbowl, WA
Day 327
Day 328
Day 329: AmeriCorps issues & criticism
Day 330
Day 331
Day 332
Day 333: North Cascades National Park, WA
Day 334
Day 335
Day 336: O. O. Denny Park, WA
Day 337
Day 338
Day 339
Day 340
Day 341: Mount Rainier National Park, WA
Day 342
Day 343
Day 344
Day 345
Day 346: Project wrap-up
Day 347
Day 348
Road Trip 6
Washington to California
7/17/2023 – 7/18/2023
Day 349: Washington & Oregon
Day 350: Crater Lake National Park, OR
End-of-Round and Graduation
Sacramento, CA
7/19/2023 – 7/24/2023
Day 351
Day 352
Day 353
Day 354: San Francisco, CA
Day 355: Emerald Pools, CA
Day 356: Graduation and departure
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Day 350
July 18, 2023
I got up early and took a look around Diamond Lake. There wasn’t much activity, though I did see a female common merganser swimming.
We left around 7:30 and began the drive toward Crater Lake. We stopped at Castle Crest Wildflower Trail along the way for a short hike. It’s not in full bloom yet, but it’s still quite pretty. I was surprised to find that there was still some ice on the ground. I suppose that’s a result of the altitude; we were 7,500 feet up the last I checked. I was surprised I didn’t feel it, considering we were at sea level just a day before.
I promptly fell behind looking for birds and got caught in a conversation with two older women about flowers. They told me that this was the first time they’d been here this year and were coming to see the flowers before the main fire season. They pointed out several flowers including bog orchids, which they said were growing earlier this year.
They also showed me monkeyflowers, which they said would grow to cover much of the hill after a couple months.
I parted ways to try to catch up to my teammates and reached the trail clearing. It strikes me how richly this forest smells of wood. I usually don’t notice the scent of a place, but this was difficult to miss; it quite reminded me of the lumber section of a hardware store or the part of a tractor supply store that sells horse stall bedding.
The team had started splitting up to look for me by the time I found some of them. It probably took 20 or 30 minutes for the rest of us to reunite. Oops. We continued to Crater Lake, pulling over every few minutes to look. It’s hard to explain just how huge this place is. There’s no way to see it all without turning one’s head, and I couldn’t get the whole thing in one photo:
Crater Lake has a unique geological history. It is the deepest lake in the United States:
A massive eruption occurred about 7,700 years ago. It was followed by ejections of volcanic matter through fractures, in an oval shape around the mountain. These events weakened the mountain’s structure, and caused the central portion of Mount Mazama to collapse inward. The result was an 5–6 mi (8–10 km) diameter and 0.7 mi (1.2 km) deep caldera.
… Soon after the caldera formed, eruptions from new vents built the base of Wizard Island, and over several hundred years, rain and snow partially filled the caldera. Meanwhile, Wizard Island continued to grow and three other volcanoes formed underwater. The final eruption was on the east flank of Wizard Island about 4,800 years ago.
… Evaporation and seepage are equal forces which keep Crater Lake from filling beyond an average depth of 1,943 ft (592 m) or 4.9 trillion gal (18.6 trillion L) of water. About 34 billion gal (128 billion L) are gained and lost each year.
All three vans met at the visitor center so we could swap teammates and look around more. The visitor center itself was closed, but there was quite a bit of activity nonetheless. I ran into a birder I earlier saw on the wildflower trail, and she told me that the Clark’s nutcrackers I was watching had fledged a week ago. Interestingly, these juveniles looked identical to the adult feeding them; I wouldn’t have known they were fledglings if it weren’t for them screaming to be fed. I suppose this isn’t too surprising, considering they’re related to crows and jays, which generally don’t have the most distinct juvenal plumage.
I saw a Townsend’s solitaire flying in the distance. These robin and bluebird relatives are plain grey birds with few markings, minus some light patterning on the wings. The solid buff stripe on the top of its wing was a distinct enough field mark for me to be confident identifying it.
I watched a small flock of red crossbills land in one of the conifers. These goldfinch relatives have unique crossed bills they use to pry seeds out of cones. They are somewhat uncommon among birds for not having a distinct breeding season or location; they’ll breed whenever and wherever the conifer seeds are plentiful.
We drove for several hours and crossed into California. It looks like several acres along the interstate had burned recently:
A few more miles, and we passed Mount Shasta and met for lunch at Weed, CA. Another several hours, and we finally arrived back at campus. We took COVID tests, got our dorm keys, unloaded the vans, and spent the rest of the evening socializing and resting.
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Day 349
July 17, 2023
We packed the remainder of our stuff in the vans and headed out at 8:00. I saw a band-tailed pigeon fly by somewhere along the route. I’m surprised it took this long; they’re supposed to be one of the most common pigeons in Washington.
Two of the vans met up for lunch a couple hours down the road, then set off separately. Our van continued on to Portland, where we stopped at Powell’s, the world’s largest independent bookstore. We drove through Salem and stopped in Eugene to eat and visit a team leader’s friend. Came across this guy on the toilet paper dispenser:
We met up with other teammates at the hotel to switch vans for the trip out to Diamond Lake and Umpqua National Forest. There are a lot of bugs! I must have seen thousands of gnats looking across the lake at dusk, though they’re too small to appear on camera:
We made a campfire at the designated spot; there is a high fire danger currently, and it is not safe to do so elsewhere.
Some of us drove out to the dock to watch the stars. It was new moon and one of the best starry nights most of us had seen in years; the milky way was partly visible and it was difficult to identify the constellations due to the sheer number of stars. I saw a couple shooting stars and several bats fly overhead. Wild to think that these are the kinds of nights we could be seeing on the regular if it weren’t for light pollution.
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Day 348
July 16, 2023
Final preparations for the drive. We stopped at a grocery store to stock up on snacks and began packing the vans in the afternoon. We’ve got three vans, so we’ll be splitting into separate groups to see different places on the way back to campus.
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Day 347
July 15, 2023
Spent most of the day decompressing. Did some laundry and started thinking about packing for the road trip.
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Day 346
July 14, 2023
Final day of our final FEMA Corps project. We were in the conference room with the project leads again. We added finishing touches to whatever we could until we were told to stop working at around 11:00. Our project leads thanked us for our work and presented each of us with a brief speech and hand-painted/decorated paper plates related to our roles and specialties during the project. We provided feedback on future plans for the dashboards and were offered cake (and non-painted plates to eat it on).
Our teams got much further than anticipated this round, as the community profiles weren’t expected to be this far along until at least 2025. We were only expected to finish gathering data for Oregon, but we also got over 95% of Idaho, Washington, and Alaska data gathered, plus two mostly-functional Power BI dashboards put up. I’d say we all made an effective team.
We were let out at around 12:30 and picked up lunch and headed back to the hotels. I figured I’d go downtown again since the workday was short and we didn’t have many weekend plans. It’s been a busy day.
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Day 345
July 13, 2023
We all sat in the office conference room for most of the day as we worked on wrapping up the community profiles. I did a bunch of stuff, which I can’t quite remember, and finished up the majority of documentation for how the Excel sheets and Power BI modeling worked. We now have most of the Alaska dashboard up now, though there is no way we’re going to finish before we leave. I searched for more jobs after work.
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Day 344
July 12, 2023
Took the day off, finished up the independent service project, and applied for some jobs. Things are coming to a close…
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