I tried to help sandbag this morning. I really did.
I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. to give myself enough time to get up, brush my teeth and drive over to Wilson Arena, where work was supposed to start at 7 a.m. I even asked friend who was already going to be up that early to call me and make sure I woke up.
The time came this morning and I answered the phone. After I hung up, my alarm got off. "All right," I told myself, "let’s get going."
I then made the mistake of closing my eyes. It was a mistake because the clock said 7:20 a.m. the next time I opened them.
I got out of bed that time and threw on some work clothes. With freshly brushed teeth, I went out to my car and drove over to Wilson Arena, getting lost on Jamestown College campus in the process. I finally found the arena soon after, where I found a pile of sand, some bag-filling cones and a few containers of what I thought were unfilled sandbags.
There wasn’t a soul around.
I stepped out of the car and looked for any sign of other volunteers. Not one. I walked into the arena to see if they were inside. It was empty.
I stuck around for about 15 minutes in case someone might come, but no one did. If it weren’t for the drivers going by on their way to work or class, I might have thought the rapture had come and I’d been left behind.
I went home and got some rest. I called the flood hotline later this morning to see if I’d made some mistake. It turns out that there was sandbagging done today, but it didn’t start until 9 a.m.
It said in the paper this morning and in at least one previous story that sandbaging was to start at 7 a.m. today. I guess they changed their minds. I was wrong about that part.
I’ll try again tomorrow.
UPDATE: It looks like one of two things happened: 1. Someone gave us the wrong start time for sandbagging or 2. We took down the wrong time and printed it. I have no idea which one it was.
