EARTHQUAKE - Chapter 9

Wednesday morning Jack Raymond, Karl, Shorty, and the rest of Baker’s Coffee Klatch got onto a plane with a large number of other survivors. The men from the factory who had spent several days looting the town were an unhappy bunch. The State Police stood by as they stripped for showers. In their clothes they found a large cache of money and jewelry. The police seized all the money they had, assuming that most of it had been looted from stores. They told them that they had too much else to do to book them and send them to a court to be arraigned. Instead they were sending them to shelters like the rest of the survivors.

The plane landed at Little Rock Airport. When Karl picked up his tool box at Baggage Claim, he put it into a locker. Then he joined the others who were waiting in a group. Altogether there were about a hundred in the group, mostly men, Two men in business suits were waiting to speak to them.

“I am Tom Bartlett and this is Harry Latimer. Outside are two school buses. They will carry you into Little Rock. Harry’s bus will stop at a Baptist church which has set up a shelter for women and children, All the women and children, be sure to get on Harry’s bus. My bus will go to a shelter for men and after Harry’s bus stops at the shelter for women and children, it will go on to a shelter for men. At the shelters there will be sandwiches, coffee, water. If you want anything else you will have to find a fast food place or restaurant and pay for it yourselves.

“At the shelters there will be representatives of the Red Cross, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Employment Security. There are quite a few shelters around the city so you will have to watch the bulletin board in your shelter to find out what days and times each of these representatives will be at your shelter. The Red Cross will be passing out comfort packs. These include razors, wash cloths, soap, etc.  They are also the ones who provide the coffee, sandwiches, water, and other snacks.

“The Department of Human Services will issue a money card for $200 to each of you. That is so that you can buy some clothes. For the women with children they will offer other services. They will explain how to sign up for food stamps once you have established a residence.

“All of you have become unemployed by this earthquake. The Department of Employment Security will sign you up to look for new employment. As soon as you establish residence you will be eligible for unemployment benefits.

“Karl said to Jack, “Get all of our guys together and let’s get on the same bus. We’re going to have to stick together at that shelter. I’m willing to bet that it will have its share of roughnecks.”

“You are right. You look for them and I will too.”

The BCK was quickly formed into a group that got on the bus together and sat together.

When they arrived at the men’s shelter it was as Karl predicted. It was a building that had been an office building, but had been vacant several years. What had formerly been offices were hastily converted into “dormitory” rooms with about eight cots in each former office. The BCK was able to get a room of their own. The rest rooms were out in the halls. The elevators no longer worked. They were on the sixth floor, so they had a long hike up to their room and down to the main floor where there were sandwiches and coffee, where the various representatives had booths set up, and where the only showers were located.

After they had eaten some sandwiches and had coffee, they were given a talk by the Department of Human Services representative, They were then issued money cards for $200 for “transition funds”. Unlike the men from the factory, their own money had not been confiscated, so they each had some money of their own.

Karl said to the BCK group,

“I am going to find the closest Walmart and buy some underwear, socks, jeans and shirts. I am also going to look for one of those clamps like you can put on the door knob at ratty hotels that keep anyone from opening the door from outside. If anyone else wants to go with me, we can share a taxi cab.”

They all wanted to go. Outside, Karl wrote on a slip of paper the name of the street and then walking to the corner, he wrote down the other street.

“I just wanted to be sure I’ll know what to tell the taxi that brings me back.”

One of the men said, “You’re like a mother hen, Karl.” Everyone laughed.

After they shopped, they saw that the Walmart store had a Subway shop on the aisle leading out of the store. They all bought a submarine sandwich to take back to their room with them.

When they were back in their room at the shelter, Karl said,

“I suggest that we take our showers as soon as we finish supper. As soon as all of us have taken showers, I’m going to put this clamp on the door so that no one can come into our room at night.”

They all agreed. They went downstairs in a group. Several of them at a time took showers while the others sat in the lobby and drank coffee and watched television. Then they went back upstairs in a group.

During the night they heard loud talking, drunken laughter, sounds of scuffling, doors slamming. The next morning they saw trash and empty bottles in the stair way. There were donuts and coffee in the lobby at breakfast time. A couple men said they were attacked on the stairs last night and robbed. They had gone to a nearby bar for a couple beers. They also said that prostitutes had been hanging around the entrance to the shelter propositioning the men who were entering.

Karl and the others checked the bulletin board to find out when the representatives of the Red Cross and the Employment Security would be at the shelter. They wanted to register their location with the Red Cross and register with Employment Security for a job. Both were coming to the shelter that morning.

Mr. Bagstrom was the representative from Employment Security. When Jack Raymond mentioned farm equipment and diesel engine repair, Mr. Bagstrom said,

“Are you the men who were operating heavy equipment up in Blytheville?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I had a call from Major Fromme. He wanted me to have you call him. If you want to call him, I have his number and you can use my cell phone.”

Jack Raymond called the number and got the military switchboard operator.

“My name is Jack Raymond. Major Fromme left a message for me to call him.”

“Hello, Jack Raymond, this is Major Fromme. Thank you for returning my call. I’ve got a problem, Mr. Raymond. None of my men are trained to operate heavy equipment, or to work on them when they break down. I have a job to do and it is not getting done. If you and your crew will come back, we can pay you each $25/hour for the first forty hours each week, time and a half for hours over that. You will have complete charge of the recovery operation. My men will do what you tell them to do.”

“Let me talk to the other men and I will call you back.”

“Okay. If you are agreed, call me back and then go to Little Rock Air Force Base. They will have a plane ready to bring you up here. We need you as soon as you can get here.”

Jack told the rest of the men. They were agreed. He called Major Fromme back. They went to their room, picked up their belongings and went outside to hail a couple taxicabs. Karl had the cab he was in go to Little Rock Airport first in order to pick up his toolbox. They were in Blytheville in time for lunch.

When they were taken to their trucks and equipment, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Neither the bulldozer nor front loader/backhoe were useable without serious repair work. Karl said,

“Let’s go to Green’s lot and see what John Deere equipment is there.”

They found a heavy duty wheeled dozer and a wheeled front loader/backhoe on the Green’s lot. The building was still standing and the doors were unlocked. They found the keys to the equipment they were going to take. Karl loaded some grease and motor oil and some other parts they might need onto the dozer. Then they headed back to the site.

There were a dozen soldiers waiting to be told what to do. Karl said,

“Every one of you should have a pick or a shovel and a pair of gloves. You are going to go to every house and look every place that a body could be trapped. If you need the frontloader to pick up a collapsed wall or a beam that is in your way, call us. I’ll use the dozer to clear the way for you. I want to see every one of you working. Any slacker will be sent back to Major Fromme.”

The men worked until dusk. Even the soldiers worked through the supper hour. Karl was proud of the progress they were making. They were back to eating MREs, taking cold showers, and sleeping on cots. At least they had clean underwear to put on after their showers and clean clothes to put on tomorrow.

The next day they were on residential streets. Yesterday they recovered fifty bodies. Today, they recovered almost a hundred bodies by noon. The bodies weretagged with the address where they were found, and put into body bags which resembled oversize black plastic trash bags. Then they were loaded onto an Army truck. As soon as the truck had twenty bodies, it left and another truck took its place.

The job was really depressing. Most of the bodies found in houses were either elderly people or mothers and their children. School had ended the day before the earthquake so the only bodies in the school buildings were a few teachers or custodial people. The job was so depressing that the soldiers were given a day off after a day of recovery work.

The chaplain had more men and women coming to him than at any other time he could remember. One young lady who usually worked as a clerk in the orderly room was given clerical duties in the temporary morgue, There they cleaned the bodies, took photographs, fingerprints, and blood for DNA in order to try to identify them later. The clerk came to the chaplain, covered her face with her hands and screamed,

“How could God do such a thing? Have you seen those mothers and children? How? You tell me how, no not how, but why, why, why?” The chaplain bowed his head and sobbed along with her. 

Jack and his crew continued to work through the weekend realizing that the longer the bodies lay in the rubble, the harder it would be to identify them. At the present rate he believed that by Tuesday or Wednesday they would be finished.

The plan was to embalm the bodies, place them in coffins, load the coffins onto refrigerated barges. The barges would take the coffins to West Memphis. The photographs, fingerprints, and DNA would be used to identify as many bodies as possible. Their families would have forty-five days to claim the bodies. Any remaining coffins would be buried in a special cemetery to be established in the Blytheville vicinity.

Major Fromme and some of the others had seen the news segment about Dana on YouTube. He invited Karl to his office to watch the video.

“That’s my daughter! That’s Dana! She’s alive!”

It made it easier to continue the gruesome work that he was doing  knowing that at least one member of his family was alive. If he only knew about Mary.