Originally Posted By: mneal1 This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I have been deployed by Parr Insp. It is my first deployment and I am looking for anyone that is already deployed or has experience with this company. Also any info about procedures. Thanks D. Neal
Originally Posted By: jmerritt1 This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I hope you are not leaving any profitable business behind, as it will be a min of one week before you get in the field on your own,
take plenty of clean socks shoes and undies. pants and shirts, remember no water/ electric/gas. bring a good size cooler to keep stuff cold, also bring a few case of bottled water small size, be-carful stop at the dock and get shots, tell him what you are doing for the next month,
I also saw that Parr was limiting inspections to 6- a day, hard to make money at that rate,
Originally Posted By: ashelton This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I took my Parr training almost 3 yrs ago, can’t get their on-line refreshed to work, wondering if they are offering anything in the field as far as refresher or new inspector training. Seems I heard the whole reporting system is new from when I trained. Have emailed them and can’t get a response, guess I will try to obtain training from the competitor?
I know some inspectors that made good money in past with Parr, but not dong 6 a day, not worth leaving a business behind for that.
Originally Posted By: slanicek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I was down there w/ parr just long enough to get up and running when Rita was knocking on louisianas door, so I got out of there.
With what little time I spent there I can only offer this small insight to the "why only 6" question. To get to work you have to contact the people who live at the damaged residence and have them meet you there. Problem is, IF you can even get in touch with the people a lot of them are displaced and can't get back to town. To try and help these people out FEMA was allowing us to fax paperwork back and forth to these people to try and verify residency at said damaged home. Another problem....next to none of them have paperwork verifying their occupancy, much less try and imagine coordinating faxes with someone who has next to zero access to a fax. You have next to zero access to a fax yourself!
People were going batty with paperwork. I think the "only 6" rule, if it actually was a rule - I never heard that, was a "be happy that you did 6" or a "only give people 6 because of all the paperwork, so that they get it right the first time".
And with Rita probably displacing all the hard working crews that had to setup things for PaRR to even be able to function, give them a break if you are trying to deal with them or have dealt with them. While all of them were/are doing their best to march along and get things done....noone has ever had to deal with what Katrina alone, not to mention Rita, has thrown their way. God bless 'em all. I for one still hope to get back down there and help, hope they call me back. I consider it a worthwhile few weeks of my time if I can get down there and help those people, even if it means breaking even at best. TV doesn't do justice to what those people are going thru down there. Makes you realize you don't have things so bad. Everyone can do seomthing to help.
Originally Posted By: jmerritt1 This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
The 6- a day is something new, I got an e-mail notice, it could be hearsay, , I am a local FEMA guy in IL, but have been called 2- times for deployment, 1-St was asking for 60-day and the 2-ND was 21-days,
the 6- a day may be due to the fact that their is a lot of controversy from last storm that hit Florida, Pres dump a ton of cash in the state, election year, and FEMA is asking for some of the monies back, some damage was covered by insurance, I know all 3- contractors are hurting for good inspectors,
Originally Posted By: jmurray This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
jmerritt1 wrote:
be-carful stop at the dock and get shots, .
With the shots, I was told to get hep A & B by Parr for Katrina.
I called a doc about this and they said Hep B was only available thru the health dept and that it was a series of 3 shots that spanned 6 months.
Go figure!
-- "A little less conversation and a little more action"!
Originally Posted By: jmerritt1 This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
And everything is ok Brownie doing a hell of a job, don’t get me wrong, I support the government fully but sometimes one hand just dose not know what the other is doing,
get the a and a tetanus, and don’t drink the water, Good luck,
I may come down in December you will still be their.
Originally Posted By: slanicek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I don’t know about the Hep-A shots, but it is true about the Hep-B shots…that it’s a series of 3 shots over a six month period. Verify w/ your doctor, I verified w/ mine.
PaRR, thru some local clinics in Houston and Metairie(subburb of New Orleans) areas, had it arranged so that inspectors could go down and get these shots for free. What I did not personally hear them explain to people, however, was that the series of Hep-B vaccines ARE NOT protecting you against hepatitis until you get that third round in month 6! Hopefully people are not going out into the field thinking they are protected after only the first round.
And yes....there are areas that you will be asked to work in that had flood waters. And, yes, that means areas where all that talked about "toxic sludge" might have been floating around, and is now looking like harmless dirt on the ground. It is still contaminated. Not to mention the mold in all the homes. We were even told that a few inspectors had become sick. People down there are walking around with the disposable "booties" that you can wrap over your shoes/boots so that you can throw them away before you climb back into your car/truck and not track it around with you everywhere. It's not uncommon to see people in the white coveralls or even with breathing masks on.
All of that is not meant to scare anyone to death about going down there to help. Just the reality of the theater. All of the above info was given to me by either my doctor, PaRR, and/or police/military individuals.
Good luck to anyone who pursues this. Just know whats going on down there and protect yourself!
Originally Posted By: jmichalski This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Steve,
I am considering a stint down there, but I have to say that I would be taking a beating financially if 6 per day was an optimistic assessment. Is it accurate, and did it seem to be getting better? Or is the 10-15 per day guideline that I was trained under still quite some time away?
Originally Posted By: tschwalbe This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
The 6 a day stemmed from a earlier thread which stated that inspectors were luckey if they could do 6 a day this was because you can not contact the owners no paper work. Also it was stated they were paying 49 dollars per inspection and no speed estimating. No short cuts you have to do the whole report for all of them no exceptions. How ever they always change the rules along the way when they are behind or dont have enough inspectors.
Originally Posted By: slanicek This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Joseph,
I am not there at the moment. Not sure if anyone has been sent back to tell the truth. And maybe there were people who stayed thru Rita? All's I know is that I wasn't sticking around for round two, know what I mean?
So, all I can speak for is what I saw/heard right before Rita hit. Especially if it's your first deployment, and if/when communications improve....people start coming back in, I wouldn't count on more than 5-6 a day for the first week to 10 days. That's just my two cents. After that, I'm sure like anything else...it's just repetition and most people will pisk it up to 10 or more a day.
The other thing that will throw a kink in your day is finding a place to sleep and do your paperwork every night. Even cots at local Firehouses and Police stations that were graciously offered were hard to come by. I'm not kidding. Cots were hard to come by. Many folks were driving in every day from North of Baton Rouge which translates to about 3+ hours on the road every day. And when people start coming back into town using that main artery, add another 2 hours. I experienced that a couple days when the Mayor told everyone to come on back home 
Originally Posted By: jmurray This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
ashelton wrote:
The 6 months and 3 shot series in correct on Hep B, what vaccinations are required by the contractors/Fema ?
Sorry did not specifically note Hep B ='s 6 months.
Thank you doctors! 
Parr only required tetanus (as discussed at the training).
Now they require Hep A & B as "requested" over the phone, along with the tetanus.
Sad thing is the newly requested Hep B shot will do you no good if you went out and received it today!
Hep B is nothing to play with so consider that in your plans to become "rich"!
Let's see monthly car rental ='s $1100
Monthly hotel ='s $1750
Monthly food ='s $600 (20.00 per day)
Monthly gas ='s $1500 or there about.
Laundry expense ='s $100
Lost business if your slow ='s $1000
How much do those shots cost? $200?
Lost marketing time ='s ???
I miss anything?
-- "A little less conversation and a little more action"!