Unfinished Business

November 19, 2017, 2330 hrs: Crorey arrives in Puerto Rico. 

A couple of days before my arrival, I saw this video that inspired me:

https://twitter.com/USACEHQ/status/930799330398699520

...and that video set the tone for expectations for the two-month effort.  It is true.  I fully expected to hear those cheers regularly.  I mean, I was not going to be the field guy, but that cheer when the lights went on was both the goal and the expectation:  I envisioned videos every few days from the field, as people get charged up, leaving me charged up as well.  I was going to be building relationships, fighting to get funding to get the mission completed, working to do the job. Bringing lights to the people of Puerto Rico.

Fifty eight days later, I am two days away from leaving a situation that is not yet fixed.  I am leaving behind work that still needs to be done, and it is work that needs to be done in areas I thought would be complete by now.

The work is not complete.  I am leaving without having done what I thought I would be able to do.  There should be a feeling of satisfaction that accompanies the completion of a mission, a sign that announces MISSION COMPLETE!

Or, at the least, there should be a profound sense of accomplishment associated with furthering the mission.  I am just a cog, but I am a cog in a significant effort.  And I am adding my weight to the pushing.

I am struggling to get my arms wrapped around what I am feeling right now.  It is not disappointment in my effort or in the mission.  The situation needed our attention, and it needed that attention right away.  We came in and pushed as hard as we possibly could.  It was, and is, a good mission.  It has been an incredible effort.

It also has nothing to do with the people working the mission.  Everyone I met - with one notable exception (adult beverage conversation) represented the best of what the Corps of Engineers brings to the work it does.  They are dedicated.  They work hard.  They make personal sacrifices to get the job done.  They put the ego aside and figure out how to get things done.  The guys I worked with are amazing.

The need is incredible.  In the last week before leaving, I traveled with the Construction chief to see work being done around the island.   Everywhere we went, the lack of power tainted everything.  People thanked us, despite the lack of success in evidence in every town. People asked questions politely, and seemed sad, rather than angry.  It was not ever a situation where people seemed like they were owed more.  They seemed more resigned to the fact that despite it all, they expected more bad luck.



In the light of those conversations, usually partially drowned out by the thrum of a generator, I found it hard to feel good about the work I had been doing.  We had been fighting to get contracts in place.  We had been battling to increase the pace of the delivery of poles, transformers, insulators, crossarms, bolts, connectors.  We had contracted helicopters to raise transmission towers.  We tracked changes, tracked expenses, pushed contractors to produce results, reported every possible metric every single day.

Poles getting into the port. 
Slow going, even at the speed of rainbow.

But what we had not done is what hits me the hardest.

We did not break the logjam for getting materials to the island.  We are SO close.  But the contracted crews are still scavenging for materials from dead lines and doing as much prep work as they can.  We are currently figuring that all the material will be here 1 February, and then the accelerator can roar.

We did not turn on the lights for the people.  The situation is clearly different from when I arrived.  Everywhere I go there are small signs of changes, and more people have electricity than did before we showed up on the island.  But the huge numbers we were wanting to help did not come back online while I was here.  Changes have been small, incremental changes, and the victories seem out of proportion to the battles we have fought to get there.

We did not even figure out what to do for the steps following the completion of the power restoration.  How do we recommend proceeding?  It will not be easy work, and I don't have much of a sense of how they are going to do it.  The vegetative growth alone will undo any work we complete within six months.  And the system we are repairing is being repaired to a safer version of what it was before.... and NOT a system with any improvements embedded.  How much can they put underground?  How can they harden the system to decrease the risk of future disasters?  How can we prepare better for this mission for the next time?

Once I leave on Thursday, the fight will continue, and Pat and Eric and Sharron and Teresa and Nicole and Kim will all continue to push and track and fight, and little by little the logjam will recede.  There will be new problems, and burrocrazy will begin to fight against progress.  And as more and more power is restored to the island, it will be harder and harder to get the focus to deliver for those last remaining people.  95% of the population energized is pretty good, right?

That wasn't the deal.  That was never the deal.  We were - and are - pushing for everybody back up and running.  Recovery begins when power is restored.  And dangit, these folk deserve to begin recovery.  As soon as possible.

We continue the work, even after I am gone.

Estamos Aqui.

And part of my heart will remain.