My 6-Week Journey to Help with Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery

In episode 100, Camille is going to share about her 6-week journey to North Carolina, to help out with the Hurricane Helene disaster recovery efforts.

Join Camille as she explains how and why she has decided to undertake this journey at this point in time. She is going to give you some really interesting insight into a past experience that influenced this decision and what the expects to be doing and experiencing during this 6-week venture.

So, kick back, grab some coffee, or whatever, and enjoy the return of the Remote Work Retirement Show podcast.

Here is Camille's direct link for All Hands and All Hearts, the organization she will be working with, and she talks about in this episode. All donations will go directly to them. Please feel free to share.

https://give.allhandsandhearts.org/camille

Click here to read the show notes for this episode:
https://www.camilleattell.com/blog/100

You can also take her FREE training at:
www.camilleattell.com/remote-training

If you want to learn more about how to leverage your digital products or service visit:
www.camilleattell.com/remoteworkschool
 
Connect with Camille on Instagram: @camille.attell

Connect with Camille on Linkedin: Camille Attell, MA

Read more about the RV and Remote Work Lifestyle at https://www.morethanawheelin.com/

Transcript

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In episode 100, I'm going to share about my six week journey to North Carolina, to help out with the hurricane Helene disaster recovery efforts.... you're listening to the remote work retirement show. I'm your host, Camille Attell. And this is the only show that helps semi retirees figure out the remote work options. I believe the remote work is the new retirement plan and that many retirees have both the ability and desire to work, how they want so they can live how they want. Let's dig into today's episode.... Hello again, friend. It has been a minute since I have recorded a podcast. I believe the last time I recorded something was in may of 2024. And before I get into today's topic. Which is not exactly about remote work, but as always, I will link the topic to remote work. I want to tell you what I think happened in terms of why I haven't recorded an episode in a while. Now, if you're new to the show, none of this matters, but I don't know. Maybe you'll find it interesting. And if you're excited that you're returning to the show, because I'm finally back, I want to tell you why it took me so long. So back in, I don't know, maybe March, April of 20, 24, if you were following along, I was on the road. And as you probably know, I used to be a full-time RVR for many, many years. I had built a business from my RV and hadn't been on the road for a while. So my husband Bryce and I got back on the road in 2024 for about five weeks, we went to see the solar eclipse in Texas. Along with hitting some other, uh, hotspots on our travels. And I was recording a, um, like a travel series basically, which seemed to be pretty popular. And then I was kind of depleted after that. I got home and I needed to get back into the groove of work. And a funny thing happened. We have, um, Ray Luxor on our team. She is our customer experience ambassador for remote work school. And we were talking one day and she said, you know, you have episode 100 coming up on the podcast and you should do something special. And I was thinking the same thing because we think alike and I was like, I know I really should do something special. And I kept trying to figure out what the special was going to be. And I just, I couldn't seem to come up with anything. And I think what happened is the old perfectionist tendencies that I have started to creep in. Because there was something about this 100 episode that really got into my head and I was like, I got to make it special and cool. And I got to do something with balloons and champagne. Like in my head, this was supposed to be some like amazing episode and I just, nothing. I was worthy. No topic I could come up with was, was worthy. So then I was like, well, let me, let me just press pause on this. And until I come up with something and nothing came to me and then months went by and other things happened in the business, both good. And you know, I'm not going to say bad, but you know, challenges in the business. And I just got further and further away from recording an episode. And the reason why I want to share that with you is I think a lot of people can relate to having this big looming thing way over you. In fact, I know people can relate to this because they work with people like this all the time in remote work school, where someone might be working on, for example, a website and they're not ready to launch their business until their website is perfect or they're. Working on the perfect services or they, you know, want to get that the perfect set of emails written. It's always like. Trying to, to strive for this level of. Of I'll call it perfection, but more specifically. A level where no one can judge you because you've done everything right. I mean, let's really just break down the word perfectionism, because that's what it's about. People are perfectionists because they don't want to get judged. They don't want to get called out. They don't want someone to find a mistake or an error, or they don't want to be embarrassed or ashamed of the work that they're putting out. And while I'm a recovering perfectionist, I will say the number 100. Really did something to me psychologically, and it stopped me in my tracks. Um, So despite my best efforts to get back to the podcast. I let that sink my ship. And I just want to give you permission if you're listening today to this episode and you relate to this, be getting stuck, being hung up on getting the thing you're working on. Absolutely perfect. Because you know, let's get real. It's never going to be perfect. It's never going to match. The thing you're picturing in your mind, it never ever will. And it may stop you from putting the thing out that you want to put out. So I just want to encourage you not to follow in my footsteps on this one, because I, I failed on this. I really let this get to me and it is now months have gone by. And the problem with that is there are people who listened to this podcast pretty regularly. And by me not showing up, I didn't get to serve them. And that's the real bummer. I made it about me and not about them. Now that said, I think I finally came up with the best topic I could think of to celebrate 100 episodes of doing this podcast because it is a really big achievement. To do something a hundred times who knew, I mean, when I started this podcast, Yeah, back in. I don't know. I think now it was like December of 20, 21. I fought tooth and nail not to do it. But I'm a former member of remote work school named sir Isaac Smith. He, he became a podcast producer and he really encouraged me to do this thing. And it was just a big, big undertaking again, because I put so much pressure on myself to make it as perfect as it could be. So I never thought that I would get to 100 episodes. I don't even know that I thought I would get to 10. But it was kind of a one foot in front of the other sort of thing. And the less I worried about it, the more I got into a groove until of course this number snuck up on me. But I I'm happy to say I came up with something that I think is quite worthy. Of celebration. And that is to share with you. I a journey that I'm taking something I've I've wanted to do for a really long time and the opportunity presented itself. And that is, I will be traveling to North Carolina here just in a, in a matter of days. To participate in the hurricane Helene disaster recovery efforts. And I want to talk about that today because full transparency, I am raising funds as well, as well as going and volunteering on the ground, which we'll talk about here in a minute. I'm also raising money. And so this entire episode, which I don't think will be too long, I am, um, encouraging you to go to my link. I'll put it. In the show notes here for you. So you can just click on it. But I'm going to encourage you to donate any amount that you can. I don't care if it's a dollar$5,$10,$25 or more, whatever, whatever you can spare. Would be incredibly helpful. Now the funds will be going directly to an organization that I'll be working with called all hands and hearts. This organization has been around since 2005. And what they do is they deploy disaster recovery teams in areas globally, where there are disasters. So they've gone to places like Mexico for earthquakes, they've gone to Florida for hurricanes and they will be going to Florida for Milton. Of course. And they are in fact, going into North Carolina, the Asheville and surrounding areas. To help with the hurricane recovery efforts. And so any donation that you make will go directly to that community, especially if you donate through my page. Now I'll give you the, I'll say what the link is, but it's probably going to be hard for you to remember. So, like I said, I'll put the link in the show notes as well. You can just. At the end of this episode, go and click on it. Um, but the link is give G I V E dot all hands and hearts. Dot org. Slash Camille C a M I L L E. That's my direct link. And it'll take you to my page. You'll be able to read more about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And then you'll be able to donate. You can donate with your name. You could donate anonymously. And if you can't donate, that's totally understandable. I ask that you at least share what I'm doing. Share the link to my page with your friends and your family, your network, maybe share it on Facebook or Instagram or Tik TOK or wherever. I don't care. Wherever, if you can share that would be super helpful. So, let me start by saying, why do I even want to do disaster recovery in the first place? Why does this call to me? So this goes back to the year 2006. I want to say. In 2006, I had the opportunity to go to burning man. Now, if you've never been to burning, man, it is really something. And I think people have their opinions or their perceptions about what burning man is. And I certainly had a perception at the time that burning man was this. Kind of, I don't know, weird party in the desert where there was art and that's about all I knew about it back in 2006. So I went to burning man with total strangers. I should say this is, should be a story for another time. I was supposed to go with a friend. And unfortunately, last minute she couldn't go, but she had, she was going with some other friends, I didn't know. And she said, you should still go with these people. And I was like, okay. So I go to this place I've never been before with total strangers. And when I got there. The first day was very disorienting. I didn't even get there until the middle of the night because my plane broke. I had to rent a car again with total strangers. I met Moby the singer. If you know who that is. It was a whole, it was a whole thing. Again, I should record a different podcast. Get into the details on all of that. So I get to burning man. It's like midnight. I had to roll in the dirt. I guess that's a thing you do when you're new there. I don't know. And on day one, I just felt really uncomfortable. It was strange. I mean, it's a place where there are no rules. There are no laws. I mean, obviously you can't, you know, Do any harm to anybody that's, you know, a rule and a law, but I mean, other than that kind of anything goes. And for the first couple of days, I just felt weird. I mean, it was very much like culture shock.'cause you know, when you live in. Well, let's just say America, as an example, you know, there's a lot of rules and a lot of laws you drive on the right side of the road there. You know, you can't go into stores without a t-shirt and you know, shoes. And like, you, you take these things for granted. You go to burning man, and all of that just gets thrown out of the window. And it was very shocking to me. And so for the first couple of days, I just thought, I don't think this is for me. I kind of want to leave, but I can't get out of here cause I didn't have a ride. And I just felt stuck now here's the turning point. The one thing that was really appealing to me about that experience is that there were a lot of art installations, really amazing art installations. I can't even put it into words that the structures that people build, the creativity that pours out of people is really something. And one day I was just kind of walking around, looking at the art and I walked upon a camp. And this camp, what it was, was a, an installation that showed that people who were at burning man in 2005. So the year previously, Were there when hurricane Katrina hit, when it hit new Orleans. And that camp. Had all these pictures and stories, they literally packed everything up from burning man. And they drove all the way straight down to as close as they could get to the impacted hurricane zone. Of Katrina, the flooding zone, I should say. They set up camp. And they stayed there for six months. And helped with recovery efforts, they help with sanitization of water. They help with helping I set up different ways to keep themselves safe. They were able to bring in food and make sandwiches and, and bring in supplies for people. And the reason that they were able to do that. Is because the whole point of burning man, the philosophy around burning man is radical. Self-reliance. It's all about. You know, I could go as far as saying is survivalism, not for everyone. I mean, for some people it's still a party in the desert. But the point of burning man and the origins of burning man is radical self-reliance and this camp was able to pack up, get themselves into a disaster zone and then help the citizens in that disaster. And that really made an impact on me. It just changed the whole dynamic of burning man from this weird thing I didn't understand to. Okay. I get it. And from then on, I always had this desire that I wanted to go do something like that someday where I could help people. Um, in a situation like that, because beyond that influence of that camp, I also am built. To be good in crisis situations. I'm very, I have good leadership skills. Um, I am a fast decision maker. I'm good under pressure. And I always thought I'd probably be good at something like that. The challenge for me is from that point on and for the next, you know, 15 plus years, I had a job. I had a tried and true corporate job where I had to work. You know, eight to five every day. So there was never going to be a time when I could get deployed to a disaster zone. And not put my own job and my own income at risk. Until now. And so that brings me to present day. So now I explained to you why I've always wanted to do that, do that. Now let's talk about how I'm able to do it. Now, the reason why I'm able to do this is because I run a remote business, a 100% remote business, which means I can take this business anywhere. And while, and I have taken it anywhere. I've taken it on the road. As I mentioned, I was on the road earlier this year. First five weeks and took the business with me. Um, when I was RVM full-time from 2016 to 2020, and even a little bit of 2021, I was working full time from my RV. Now I have never taken the business into a disaster zone. So that's new and that will pose a new set of challenges. Because I don't know what the internet will be. Like. I ha I have been in contact with the volunteer team there in North Carolina, and I've asked them about internet and the best they can tell me is, they have it in some areas, in some areas it has yet to be, um, totally restored. Now, lucky for me, I've dealt with stuff like this before, so you know, this isn't my first rodeo for internet. So I bring internet with me. I do have a hotspot. Um, it's old, it's an old Verizon hotspot. Ideally, I would have Starlink internet, but I don't, uh, and I'm not going to pay for it right now. So I'm just going to cross my fingers that this old thing works. If not, I will be able to probably get to some town somewhere when needed to jump online and do some stuff. I also am able to work from my phone. And sometimes the phone gets better internet than my computer. The shifts that I'll be working will be 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Eastern. So the good news about that is I will still have many hours left in the day for the Pacific time zone and, and the other time zones where I can still be available. So Ray, who I mentioned earlier, she'll be managing the morning shift. And then I will come online when she typically gets off. Um, her shift. And I'll still have Sundays off, so I'll be able to work on Sundays. So this'll be interesting. I mean, again, I don't know exactly how it's going to work. If you're listening to this episode and you are a customer in remote work school, which is our online coaching and course program that helps you learn how to work online, obtain remote work, or start a remote business. Don't worry. You've already heard from me. You've seen in our Facebook group that we do not anticipate any disruptions because we also have coach mark Kilby who will still be working with you. We have Ray, we have other people in the community. That will still be around and available, and I will still be able to do our live coaching circle. So I don't anticipate any impacts to the customers. Now let's talk about. What I will be doing once I'm there. And I'll also, um, paint for you, the picture of the living situation in air quotes. So the goal of what all hands and hearts will be doing in this area of North Carolina. Is primarily removing down trees in debris. If you've been seeing the footage, which not everyone has followed this hurricane, by the way, um, it's, it's surprising to me because I'm living and breathing this every day and it just feels so present for me. But yesterday I went to a ups store to ship some things. And I was explaining to them how I'm going to the hurricane Helene disaster zone. And they were like, oh, do you mean Milton? And I was like, well, no, because you know, this was like in the middle of Milton, so no, I'm not flying into a hurricane. I said, no, this is hurricane Helene. This, this happened, you know, just a couple of weeks ago in North Carolina and late, the lady had no idea what I was talking about. Which is just baffling to me. This area was hit. So incredibly hard. This area of North Carolina, doesn't usually get hurricanes. Um, and even though they had hurricane warnings, they, they had never had been hit like this. Uh, ever. And so they didn't realize that the, the surge would be so massive. We're talking about a mountainous region. We're not even talking about the coast. And, um, I mean, whole community's got washed away. Homes, cars, mobile home structures, businesses. I mean the river arts district down in Asheville, which is a place I have spent a lot of time in I've taken classes. There was completely washed away. Uh, by the rising rivers. And those structures have either been down or gutted. I do so it's hard for me to understand. Um, and I get it. People, people are living their own lives. I really do. I do understand that people have their own. Things are dealing with in the world. So I guess I don't expect everyone to know what's going on everywhere. I certainly get that. But because this was such an anomaly storm that hit this region. So incredibly hard, I just thought, well, everyone must have heard about this, but they haven't. So what I'll be doing in the area, just to get back to that, I guess I went off on a tangent. There is clearing trees and debris, especially on roads and trails. I will also be going into structures to do what's called mucking and gutting. So that'll be tearing out, um, things in the building that are not salvageable. It'll be clearing debris in some places, it may be clearing some toxic material. Don't worry. I've got, you know, hazmat gear and, and PPE equipment. Um, it could even be mold sanitization, although I've heard from the volunteer coordinator there that. They can't even start treating the mold because it's still too wet and you've got to wait for things to dry out before you're going to be treating any mold. So let me shift gears and talk a little bit about the living conditions, because I talked to you about why I'm going, how I'm going. And so let's talk about what it'll look like day to day. So I will be living communally. Uh, they have secured a weird giant warehouse in this area where I'm headed. Um, they. They weren't sure if they were going to have cots for us or not. So they encouraged us to bring as much. Bedding as we could, but the good news is, they think that they may be able to get bunk beds. So fingers crossed, I guess, although I don't know bunk beds, I don't know if that's any better. I am a weird sleeper. I anticipate I may be up several times during the night and I don't want to disturb a bunk mate. So who knows? Maybe I'm just going to take all my bedding to the corner of the building and sleep on the ground and just deal with it. I don't know. So it'll be communal living in this warehouse. I will have to pack lots of layers of, of warm gear because it, it will probably get pretty chilly. I, um, will be sharing meals with people. The good news is they will have three meals a day for us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't anticipate this is going to be any type of gourmet food. We're talking oatmeal. Some sandwiches. I don't know. Maybe if I'm lucky, a hot pot of stew at night. So they do encourage us to bring in our own snacks. I'm also bringing in quite a bit of gear I'm bringing in. Um, as I mentioned some of my own PPE equipment, I'm bringing in first aid. I've got, um, everything from like antidiarrheal. Cause you just don't know. With the food and the conditions, what that's going to be like. I've got bug spray and,, protective gloves. Um, I, where, you know, I'm bringing it in quite a bit of my own stuff. Now they will provide hard hats and hazmat suits as well, if need be. And you know, I'm not going in to something completely where I've got to do everything on my own. I am again, working with a very reputable organization. That has done this many, many, many times. And I trust them. I mean, I've done a lot of research. Um, and I've talked to people there who are already on the ground to try to understand. What it is I'm going, I'm walking into. So there you have it. That's really the gist of it for now. Um, if I have decent internet, I will keep you posted. I'll do more podcasts on this topic. Once I get there, I can hopefully give a report on how things are unfolding and I think it's going to be a very dynamic situation. I think it's possible. We may not have that lodging the whole time. We're there. We may have to move and relocate. I also, wouldn't be surprised if at some point they redeploy us to Milton, depending on, what we're dealing with there. We'll see, like I said, I'm supposed to be there for six weeks. That puts me there through the first, uh, at least first week of December. So that's it. There, you have it. I talked to you today about, uh, what inspired me to do this going all the way back to almost 20 years ago at burning man. I talked to you about why I am able to do this, which is because I run a remote business, but I'll keep you posted on how that's going. And then I shared with you about some of the things I'll be doing and what the living conditions. We'll be like on the ground. So that's what I've got for you today. I hope you found this interesting and inspirational. As I mentioned, this is the hundredth episode of the remote work retirement show. And, I dragged my feet on this one. So, thanks for being patient with me one more time. You can go to my link. At the end of today's episode, you can donate all donations are appreciated of any kind. And if you can't do that, then at least, you know, put me in your thoughts and prayers and all of the communities being affected by these hurricanes and, uh, be sure to share my page as well. Thank you so much for listening.