"Disaster Relief" Topic

Guys, in a few days, the wargamers of the Houston region will be returning home and surveying the damage. This one was so sudden, I think we have to assume Dan wasn't the only one flooded out on short notice.

Which means it's time for the rest of us to do a quick inventory for surplus books and castings. When they report back, we should know what we can do to re-equip them.

Houston residents: mailing addresses and priorities, please, as you have them.

Egad ! Never thought of that, despite having a couple
local gamer friends who lost a lot of paper material
(rules, references, etc.) about 15 years ago to flooding
in their homes (and not major flooding – less than a
foot of water in storage areas, but enough to cover the
lower shelves on which things were being kept).

I had several friends who were flooded in the New Orleans area after Katrina. Their metal figures were, for the most part, salvageable even though some had to be totally stripped because the paint was coming off.

What they really needed was rule books, reference books, and terrain pieces.

Jim

Too kind of you.

Not sure what my mailing address will be in the coming days. There's a good chance we might move in with Dot's parents, since they have a little bit more room than at her sister's house.

Either way it will be a week (or two) before we are even allowed back into our neighborhood. Then I'll find out what can be salvaged and what has to go.

After that, we plan to gut out the house and get rid of everything that will hold water. So my storage is going to shrink substantially wherever we end up for the next 3 or 4 months, which means that a lot of the minis will need to go to other gamers.

Lol. And to think that I was actually planning on consolidating and purging before all this happened. I guess the choice was made for me. :)

Dan
PS. This is what the neighborhood looks like today, facing NNW. Pumps are getting some of that water out, over to the other side of the levee, but a lot more runoff is coming in from the north.
link

Dear Dan

In the disruption that has destroyed your life I am sure the last thing you need is more war game junk piling in on you.

Please, when you get stabilized and have an address to send things to please tell me by writing me at sigurd@eclipse.net and give me your postal address.

I will send you something you can really use-- Cash.

Otto Schmidt

Otto, thanks a million. But please hold off. We have no idea yet what we're going to find when we finally get to the house in a week or two.

The good thing is we have lots of family close by and, just today, my wife has already reached out and started talking to the insurance company so that they can check damages the moment the water goes down.

Whatever furniture can be salvaged will go to our relatives to hold on to until we can rebuild. This could take a while (insurance company says 6 months easy), but they can hold on to a few pieces of furniture each.

As for the figures, I was good about putting them all in bins, so they might be fine, but we simply won't have space for most of them where we'll be staying all those months. I'll hold on to a small number of them, just whatever I can fit in a small carry on bag. But, in a couple of weeks I'll need to post a list of the ones in need of a permanent home and you guys can let me know which ones you want me to mail you. I just want to know they are going to fellow gamers – you guys – my fellow brothers and sisters here on TMP.

I know we can adapt to these situations. We've helped others through their troubles before, and we have learned from them some extremely good life lessons that I hope we can apply during ours.

Thanks so much for the love, prayers and good thoughts.

Dan
PS. Quick update -
This afternoon my father in law stopped by at Dot's sister's house, and he had us grab our bags and come with him. The Brazos River bridge at the city of Richmond is about to overflow and he didn't want us to be cutoff yet again. Like I said, they're spoiling us and making sure we are ok.

I too have plenty of figures I could send down South. I know some people will think it somewhat silly to send miniatures, but realistically what they will provide is a sense of comfort and normalcy in an otherwise horrible situation.I am totally on board with this.

Terrain and rules can be had. Or gear to fight on a card table if that's all the space you have for a bit.

Let us know when you are settled and ready for diversion.

Dear Dan

As I said, when you get settled give me your address. The money is waiting for you.

Otto

Dan,

Just remember what I PM'ed you. I was serious.

Dave

Thanks. You guys are awesome!

UPDATE

This is our subdivision as of this evening:

link

While the water is going down rapidly in other areas, our water has only gone down only 4 inches (of the original 20), because the new water that we are still getting from the canals is being held in by the levee.

Dan

Hey Dan,
Late to the party. If there is anything I can do for you let me know. Figures, rules, terrain, cash?