I realise I’ve already covered New Yoik, but there are several disaster movies left in me. So from the Republic of Georgia yesterday, let me transport you to Atlanta, Georgia, in the company of the Salvation Army General of the time, André Cox.

The mission was to film a General’s-eye view of one of his international visits to rally the troops, as it were. This was supposed to be a straightforward visit – a few public meetings, a retirement to commemorate, a little meeting and greeting. And, as we waltzed through Heathrow Airport, all seemed well.

One transatlantic flight later, and the weather had turned quite dramatically bad. Particularly in Texas, where a major hurricane had changed course to smash the coastline. The Salvation Army’s emergency disaster services team – based in Atlanta – were responding with scores of mobile canteens to feed people displaced from their homes.

And with the weather forecast indicating that things were going to get much, much worse, plans had to be changed. The General was to go to Texas instead, to encourage the emergency responders. The public meetings in Atlanta were scaled back as few people from outside the city would be able to make the journey safely. The International Headquarters team would be unable to travel with the General due to the non-availability of flights. So we remained in Atlanta to support the team there (expertly led by Christopher Priest) while the Texas divisional media team would do their best to capture the General’s activities further south.

I divided my time between the emergency services command room (where Jeff Jellets was coordinating his highly experienced team devise the logistics of an increasingly large and complicated response) and help with the live streamed meetings that were still a pivotal part of the weekend. I found myself on camera 4 for the live event, with Gaz looking after broadcast sound. And the time spent in the emergency response hub was invaluable, given that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were by then of international significance. I was able to feed international news releases back to London much more quickly than had been the norm, and it improved communications in the months and years subsequent.

The following day, with the General back in Atlanta, we were able to pick up a few of the aspects we’d originally envisaged, but now took on new relevance – such as a visit to the emergency response command room, where the dedicated staff were quite rightly applauded for their efforts.

But a further change of wind direction, and Atlanta itself found itself in the eye of the storm as the hurricane veered directly through the city. The Salvation Army’s facilities here were designed to be resilient, but it meant the office was closed to all but essential staff. In fact, the whole city was closed down – even McDonald’s and the Waffle House. It was a very fierce storm for a short while, though I was surprised by just how quickly the strong winds subsided.

The first time I visited the US was also ostensibly for an emergency services conference, though with a number of seminars attached to it that required live blogging. This event took place in Orlando, and I couldn’t resist staying on for the weekend so that I could take the train down to Miami. This too was hampered by extreme weather – the train was five hours late due to a tornado. An excuse that South Western Railway hasn’t yet deployed.

And a business meeting with Salvation Army development colleagues in Washington DC coincided with a government shutdown and a group of us nearly being arrested outside the White House. But, alas, we’re out of space for that one…