Tuesday, September 20, 2005

9/20 Hurricane(s), etc.

HHS's website now says:

At this time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is NO longer accepting individual medical and relief worker applications. More than 33,000 health care professionals and relief personnel have registered with the Department of Health and Human Services for possible deployment in affected areas.

I'm one of the "more than 33,000." Elsewhere on the website it says:

The vast pool of applicants should allow us to meet the needs in the affected areas. The recovery effort will be long and the current pool of volunteers will be used over the next several months. We ask those who have registered on this site to please be patient as we continue to deploy workers where they will be most helpful. We will be contacting those who meet the requirements and needs in the field as soon as we are able.

Guess this will work out well for me. If called, it will be October or after, just what I'd hoped. And there's only one MUST for me in November--I'm giving a talk at Mohonk that I can't/won't miss. That's only for a long weekend. Other than that, I can go. My boss asked me this morning about the request I'm supposed to write for her to give to the CEO. Don't know why I haven't done it yet. This volunteering is so important to me; maybe I'm scared they'll say no. That's such a small chance that it shouldn't worry me. Maybe it's because my desk is piled with incomplete projects that I need to finish. Dunno.

I'm just glad that I'll be able to serve. (Fingers crossed.) And now that Rita is a Category 2 already, who knows what's going to happen in the Gulf. It's just sad.


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