Disaster - Day 2

What a day! We got off a little early again, meaning we worked an 11 hour day, but it went by quickly. I was assigned to the office today and tomorrow, but I got to go out in an ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle) over lunch today to help serve 100 sack lunches to people without power. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life.

Larry and I (Larry is an 80 year old volunteer who is hilarious, generous, and now my buddy) drove the lunches to a parking lot in the middle of a long street of houses that still don't have their power back. People came over and we chatted with them and handed out the bags, along with water, to ANY person who needed it, in an ANY quantity they requested. Red Cross does not discriminate in any way shape or form, and the immensity of what this meant really hit me today. This organization's mindset is to take people at their word and help them in any way they can. One lady told us that there are about 7 churches within walking distance of her house, but not one of them had opened their doors to help in the community, or come around to see if people needed food or help or prayers. She said the Red Cross was the only thing she'd seen in the area that had come to help, and she thanked us repeatedly.

From there we drove to a trailer park community that sustained quite a lot of damage, and one resident was actually killed by a tree falling on her trailer. The trailer looked like it had been cut in half by the tree, and there were several more trailers that looked the same way, though fortunately no one else was hurt. Larry drove the truck slowly around the neighborhood while I excited honked the horn to get peoples attention that we were there since there were far too many trailers to go around knocking on people's doors. I wanted to exemplify an ice cream truck by singing a carnival song into the microphone that projects like a megaphone from the truck, but I thought that might be overkill.

I lot of women came over with little children and babies to get lunches, and I've never wanted to be able to speak Spanish more than I did when interacting with them. They were all really happy to get the food, and when I'd ask them how many bags they needed, I gave them twice as many (per Larry's example) so that they'd be sure to have dinner in the evening too. Larry shamelessly pulled a few cookies out of random bags to give to the little kids that shyly held their mothers' hands, claiming they were too cute to not do as much. Hopefully the people who received bags without cookies weren't too upset :)

The one thing I found sad and disconcerting today was the way about 50% of the people who called into the emergency lines Jacquie and I were answering treated us on the phone. The Red Cross is a non-profit organization running mostly on volunteer labor, and they do not receive ANY government assistance. However, I get the feeling that many people think of it as a government agency that they are entitled to tap into as a resource whenever they are inconvenienced. I realize it's a hardship to lose power for a week, but the Red Cross is not obligated to drive a giant box of food to everyones house who lost their perishables when their refrigerator went out.

They make it their priority to first serve the people who are stuck without transportation and who have no means of getting food for themselves (there are people at this moment who are completely out of food and water and have no means of changing their predicament for all sorts of reasons). For people who are able to get out of their houses, there are several emergency shelters set up all over the area that serve food 24/7 and can provide shelter if needed (although many people refuse to permanently leave their houses, even if they have no roof, because they are afraid of looting, which is said to be a completely justified worry here). I've had people yell at me and hang up on me when I've told them we can't drive a box of food to their door to replace their refrigerator contents, and I'm talking about people with cars, canned goods, and already restored power. I must say, this is one aspect I wasn't expecting.

Anyway, I can hardly keep my eyes open, and tomorrow is a new day, so I'll say goodnight.

Love,
 k