FEMA Hurricane Relief Support - Laws of unintended consequences

Started by Eclipse, September 29, 2017, 09:42:05 PM

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Eclipse

I just got off the phone with my Dell rep - Dell's had issues since Harvey hit because their HQ is in Round Rock, TX which
is about 180 miles West of Houston.  In fact they've had a banner on their orders and support pages for weeks indicating
shipping constraints.



Anyway, I went to order a laptop dock this PM and my rep told me that there is a 7-40 day constraint on the docks
because FEMA just placed an order for 25,000.

That should give some idea of the scale of things down South and Southeast right now...

"That Others May Zoom"

Spam

25,0000?

... Two hundred fifty thousand? Who is ordering these, Tom Price?





arajca

Quote from: Spam on September 29, 2017, 10:38:21 PM
25,0000?

... Two hundred fifty thousand? Who is ordering these, Tom Price?


Not 250,000, just 25,000 (twenty five thousand)

Eclipse


"That Others May Zoom"

etodd

25,000???  Our Squadron has been asking for a aerial photography laptop for over a year now. We would be happy with just one.
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

PHall

Quote from: etodd on September 30, 2017, 02:33:08 AM
25,000???  Our Squadron has been asking for a aerial photography laptop for over a year now. We would be happy with just one.

Arrange for a hurricane to come through your town and maybe FEMA will give you one! >:D

Luis R. Ramos

#6
Ask for a laptop dock, maybe it will come before the laptop! The 25,002 dock made.

Eclipse will get dock # 25,001 and you after him!

;D
Squadron Safety Officer
Squadron Communication Officer
Squadron Emergency Services Officer

Nick

Wait a minute. I'll bite.

10,000 Federal workers in Puerto Rico. Who knows how many in Florida and Texas, but I suspect it's drastically less in both because they're both very large states with organic emergency management personnel.

You mean to tell me not one of them brought their laptop with them and can work without a dock?


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Nicholas McLarty, Lt Col, CAP
Texas Wing Staff Guy
National Cadet Team Guy Emeritus

Luis R. Ramos

#8
Reread Eclipse's message.

Apparently it is the laptop's dock that is scarce, not the laptops themselves!

So the workers did take their laptops, but not their docks...  >:D
Squadron Safety Officer
Squadron Communication Officer
Squadron Emergency Services Officer

Eclipse

Quote from: Nick on September 30, 2017, 06:58:36 PM
Wait a minute. I'll bite.

10,000 Federal workers in Puerto Rico. Who knows how many in Florida and Texas, but I suspect it's drastically less in both because they're both very large states with organic emergency management personnel.

You mean to tell me not one of them brought their laptop with them and can work without a dock?


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What this said to me was that FEMA is likely hiring a bunch of people, and / or moving them around, and
a lot of response managers will be stationed semi-permanently in and around the affected areas in new or moved offices.

It's one thing to grab a laptop, run out the door and work off the top of a trash can for a few days, but
if you're setting up shop, you're gonna want multiple monitors and a real desk.

Rare these days are professionals, business or otherwise, who work on only one display.  Heck I have 3, and
my portable CAP desk has one stored in it for easy traveling to give me at least two.

I'm guessing FEMA's standard workstation has two displays.  It's interesting, if you Google around
for ICPs, you see the typical CAP-eque hodge-podge of latops, desktops, projectors, and
chaos, but the FEMA ICPs mostly have neat setups, with nice desks, dual displays and much less fuss and muss,
though to be fair, FEMA is more in the "week after / write checks" mode vs. "picking up people from roofs" mode.







With that said, may FSM have mercy on their souls, because as much as I like Dell products, those !@#$%
USB docks are flaky as heck.

"That Others May Zoom"

EMT-83

Since their fiscal year begins October 1, this is probably a budget item with more purchase orders to follow.

Eclipse

Quote from: EMT-83 on September 30, 2017, 07:19:11 PM
Since their fiscal year begins October 1, this is probably a budget item with more purchase orders to follow.

A good point - could have been someone burning off the last of FY17 and / or checking their
bank account balance and seeing that huge Federal Aid check had cleared.

"That Others May Zoom"

Nick

Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on September 30, 2017, 07:03:45 PM
Reread Eclipse's message.

Apparently it is the laptop's dock that is scarce, not the laptops themselves!

So the workers did take their laptops, but not their docks...  >:D

Sorry if I wasn't clear and you misunderstood... I was saying there couldn't have been that many people that took their laptops on deployment and can't work from a desk without a docking station.

Quote from: Eclipse on September 30, 2017, 07:27:03 PM
A good point - could have been someone burning off the last of FY17 and / or checking their
bank account balance and seeing that huge Federal Aid check had cleared.

That's probably the reality of the situation. Use it or lose it.


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Nicholas McLarty, Lt Col, CAP
Texas Wing Staff Guy
National Cadet Team Guy Emeritus