The Two Faces of Katrina
The Two Faces of Katrina
A summary of my experience written over an 8 day period on site with Disaster Relief in Baton Rouge, LA
My entire life I have been an American, I was born here, raised here, and love it here. I cry when I listen to country music, fireworks make me feel like a kid again, and I like nothing better than pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. But it was not until I signed up with the American Red Cross to volunteer for disaster relief during Hurricane Katrina that I truly understood what it meant to be an American. The fragmented sense of community I had lived in my whole life was suddenly made whole. As Americans, black, white, young, and old, we all are, and should behave as, one community in this together.
When I hit the ground in Baton Rouge Louisiana it was a hot and humid afternoon. There were people all over the airport, some there to help, many there needing help. However, that is not what struck me. What struck me was that people were talking to each other. It did not matter who you were, or why you were there, everyone was eager to hear your story, but more importantly, everyone was eager to help--even those who had nothing left to give but their prayers. It's a shame that it took a disaster hitting for this type of interaction to seem normal and welcomed. I was nearly brought to tears each time I saw two strangers hugging. The energy was intense. It was a buzz, you just wanted to jump right in the middle and see what you could do to be a part of it. I never want to lose that feeling.
I was seeing a side of Katrina that the media seemed to be ignoring. The hope, the selflessness of those there to help, and the progress. While I am fully aware that the people here have experienced a great tragedy, and I would never deny them that, there is a story here that has yet to be told, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it.
When I arrived at the Red Cross Head Quarters in Baton Rouge I was assigned to work in Material Support. We are the group that is responsible for ensuring that the shelters, and the units supporting them, have the supplies necessary to care for the people who needed our help. I was lucky enough to be seated next to many Red Cross veterans who had done this time and time again, and I was privileged enough to hear their stories, and watch and learn. These individuals were able to get the infrastructure of a Fortune 500 company up and running in under a week. Stop a moment and think about the magnitude of that. Warehouses are unloaded, accounts activated, networks built, resources tapped, and the end result is a corporate head quarters as efficient as the office I have worked in for the last 5 years--all in under a week. We literally had the resources of the world at our fingertips, and were taking advantage of them.
The Red Cross is a phenomenal organization. In the nine days that I was onsite I saw volunteers give and give of themselves until they were exhausted and barely able to complete a thought. Each of us was a piece of a life saving puzzle. It did not matter if you were scooping mashed potatoes in a shelter, providing mental health services, tracking down a fork lift, or working as a liaison for the Federal Government, you were invaluable, and made to feel just that way.
The magnitude of what was being accomplished by the people here is like nothing I could have imagined. I sat at a desk that had a view of the head quarters building that allowed me to watch the interactions of those involved day in and day out. Each person carried out their assignments with a sense of urgency, pride, and compassion. Everyone I worked with was kind, skilled, and welcoming. The people in Head Quarters have immense integrity, and they play by the rules. But what I realized while working here is that while there were rules in place, each of the rules was made, first and foremost, with the needs of those we are helping in mind.
My team is diverse and wonderful. Each one of us possesses skills that made our abilities as a group complete. That is what the Red Cross is all about. Everyone was supportive, providing hugs, humor, and an ear to listen whenever necessary. Leaving these people behind will be one of the hardest things about my experience here in Baton Rouge. The manager of our team had done this type of disaster relief time and time again, and while he said this disaster was bigger than anything the Red Cross had ever seen, he handled it as if it was any normal day. I am truly a stronger, more balanced person for having known each and every one of these people, and its rare in life you can make a statement as bold as that.
I learned many lessons on this trip. Some have been comical, (how to bathe in a Wal-Mart bathroom in the sink), others have been more serious, (how to learn to truly rely on others), but the thing that I think was most important for me to learn was how easy it is to help. You just get up, get out of bed, and do it. It's that simple. It would not have mattered if I had a totally different skill-set, the Red Cross would have found a way to let me help. It was a scary thing for me, heading into the biggest natural disaster this country had ever seen, alone. But as soon as I hit the ground I realized I was anything but alone. The Red Cross is out here rebuilding the lives of those hit hardest, and in the process, I was lucky enough to have had them rebuild mine. I left California one person, and will come back another altogether.
I know I have not written much about the people we are here to help, that story is being told time and time again by the media. However, for me, the face that I will always have to this tragedy is the face of Tyrell. He was a 4 year old little boy, with big chubby cheeks, huge brown eyes, in a cute little button down polo and shorts. He had a big plastic spider attached to an air tube that had a small ball at the end, and he was pressing the ball to make the spider jump. He went up and down the aisles of cots singing to himself with his sad little spider as happy as can be. He was adorable.
My entire life I have been an American, I was born here, raised here, and love it here. I cry when I listen to country music, fireworks make me feel like a kid again, and I like nothing better than pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. But it was not until I signed up with the American Red Cross to volunteer for disaster relief during Hurricane Katrina that I truly understood what it meant to be an American. The fragmented sense of community I had lived in my whole life was suddenly made whole. As Americans, black, white, young, and old, we all are, and should behave as, one community in this together.
When I hit the ground in Baton Rouge Louisiana it was a hot and humid afternoon. There were people all over the airport, some there to help, many there needing help. However, that is not what struck me. What struck me was that people were talking to each other. It did not matter who you were, or why you were there, everyone was eager to hear your story, but more importantly, everyone was eager to help--even those who had nothing left to give but their prayers. It's a shame that it took a disaster hitting for this type of interaction to seem normal and welcomed. I was nearly brought to tears each time I saw two strangers hugging. The energy was intense. It was a buzz, you just wanted to jump right in the middle and see what you could do to be a part of it. I never want to lose that feeling.
I was seeing a side of Katrina that the media seemed to be ignoring. The hope, the selflessness of those there to help, and the progress. While I am fully aware that the people here have experienced a great tragedy, and I would never deny them that, there is a story here that has yet to be told, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it.
When I arrived at the Red Cross Head Quarters in Baton Rouge I was assigned to work in Material Support. We are the group that is responsible for ensuring that the shelters, and the units supporting them, have the supplies necessary to care for the people who needed our help. I was lucky enough to be seated next to many Red Cross veterans who had done this time and time again, and I was privileged enough to hear their stories, and watch and learn. These individuals were able to get the infrastructure of a Fortune 500 company up and running in under a week. Stop a moment and think about the magnitude of that. Warehouses are unloaded, accounts activated, networks built, resources tapped, and the end result is a corporate head quarters as efficient as the office I have worked in for the last 5 years--all in under a week. We literally had the resources of the world at our fingertips, and were taking advantage of them.
The Red Cross is a phenomenal organization. In the nine days that I was onsite I saw volunteers give and give of themselves until they were exhausted and barely able to complete a thought. Each of us was a piece of a life saving puzzle. It did not matter if you were scooping mashed potatoes in a shelter, providing mental health services, tracking down a fork lift, or working as a liaison for the Federal Government, you were invaluable, and made to feel just that way.
The magnitude of what was being accomplished by the people here is like nothing I could have imagined. I sat at a desk that had a view of the head quarters building that allowed me to watch the interactions of those involved day in and day out. Each person carried out their assignments with a sense of urgency, pride, and compassion. Everyone I worked with was kind, skilled, and welcoming. The people in Head Quarters have immense integrity, and they play by the rules. But what I realized while working here is that while there were rules in place, each of the rules was made, first and foremost, with the needs of those we are helping in mind.
My team is diverse and wonderful. Each one of us possesses skills that made our abilities as a group complete. That is what the Red Cross is all about. Everyone was supportive, providing hugs, humor, and an ear to listen whenever necessary. Leaving these people behind will be one of the hardest things about my experience here in Baton Rouge. The manager of our team had done this type of disaster relief time and time again, and while he said this disaster was bigger than anything the Red Cross had ever seen, he handled it as if it was any normal day. I am truly a stronger, more balanced person for having known each and every one of these people, and its rare in life you can make a statement as bold as that.
I learned many lessons on this trip. Some have been comical, (how to bathe in a Wal-Mart bathroom in the sink), others have been more serious, (how to learn to truly rely on others), but the thing that I think was most important for me to learn was how easy it is to help. You just get up, get out of bed, and do it. It's that simple. It would not have mattered if I had a totally different skill-set, the Red Cross would have found a way to let me help. It was a scary thing for me, heading into the biggest natural disaster this country had ever seen, alone. But as soon as I hit the ground I realized I was anything but alone. The Red Cross is out here rebuilding the lives of those hit hardest, and in the process, I was lucky enough to have had them rebuild mine. I left California one person, and will come back another altogether.
I know I have not written much about the people we are here to help, that story is being told time and time again by the media. However, for me, the face that I will always have to this tragedy is the face of Tyrell. He was a 4 year old little boy, with big chubby cheeks, huge brown eyes, in a cute little button down polo and shorts. He had a big plastic spider attached to an air tube that had a small ball at the end, and he was pressing the ball to make the spider jump. He went up and down the aisles of cots singing to himself with his sad little spider as happy as can be. He was adorable.
I squatted down to his level so I could talk to him and he approached. I asked him his name, and asked me mine. He took my hand with his tiny hand and I walked up the aisle with him and his spider. He asked me why I was there, I told I was there to help. He asked me what I was there to help with, I told him all sorts of things. Then he asked me if I could help him. I said I would try. He said he wanted 2 things. One was a basket ball, the second was for me to find his gramma, they lost her in the storm. When it was time for me to leave he let go of my hand and asked me if I would be back. I told him that I would not be, but anyone of us in the red vests were his friends and would always be there to help. Suddenly the red vest I had been wearing all week became much more to me than a means of identification, it made me a part of an amazing community of people.
Some people complain, and I am sure you hear them on the news, but all-in-all things are really moving along. Any organization, in any industry, would have hiccups along the way when responding to a disaster as big as this. However, the people responsible, from what I have witnessed, have handled the snags with a sense of ownership and dignity. If everything in life went as planned, we would never even need an organization like the Red Cross to begin with. I truly hope that the country understands that each and every one of us here is doing our best, with nothing but the well-being of those we are trying to help on our minds.
I am sure when I get home to the Bay Area, when my bed hits my feather pillow, and I am surrounded by all the comforts of my reality, I will cry. It will be a release a long time coming. But I won't be crying solely for the loss and tragedy that the survivors of Katrina are dealing with, I will also cry because I was a part of the hope, the healing, and the solutions. It's such a comfort for me to now know first-hand that an organization like the Red Cross exists, but more importantly, that there are the kind of people in the world to help it run, and now I am a part of it.
The Red Cross's motto is "Together We Can Save a Life," and we did. And together we will do it again and again and again.
September 2005
posted by Heller Home @ 5:46 PM
1 Comments:
Ash- As I feed my 3 children and tuck them into clean comfortable beds I find myself thinking of you and the people you are helping. My heart aches for the mothers who are unable to give these basic things to their babies. I have looked forward to reading each and every one of your entries. I would so be there with you if I didn't have my own children that need me right now. I am very proud of you. I've cried, laughed & remembered grandma with you through your entries. You are a beautiful person inside and out and I am overwelmed with pride to have you as my cousin. May God watch over you and those you help.
All my love,
Lisa
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