Heroes

I think most people have people that they admire in one form or another. Some people have heroes of sorts that they look up to and admire.
Some folks may have sports heroes, others may admire those that do good things for others with no strings attached. Those are my heroes indeed.

Several days ago I wrote about some of our American Red Cross volunteers who put their own lives on hold and ventured into unknown territory to do good for others in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota.

I am so proud of these people on several levels. I greatly admire the professional skills they take with them on disaster relief and share those skills for the benefit of others not as fortunate as them.

I also admire them on a personal level as I know them and their sincerity is genuine and from the heart with no personal gain intended.

One of our local Red Cross professionals writes a daily blog and has done a great job putting into words his observations. I thank him for granting me permission to share his thoughts with you.

To protect client confidentiality, I will not use the Red Cross workers name. I hope you enjoy and appreciate the read as much as I did.

"After 6 straight days in service (three? four? I don't remember, anymore--of
them directly in-shelter with clients), I got the call I knew was coming,
but always dread: Mandatory time off for 24. Usually in my case, the call
goes like this: Mandatory time off for 24--or ELSE! They know I have a
tendency to want to keep going. However, today, in all honesty, I'm pretty
zapped. I've never gone to sleep while at the keyboard before like I did
last night while working on the "daily" update--and those TYPOS! E-gads,
I'd never let YOU get away with all those in a paper!

I thought it best rather than try to blather on about this experience
through email--which really can't be done in words--to share with you an
official national RC site with photos dealing with the RC involvement in the
Fargo deployment. See redcrossmedia.org then click on the "Flood North
Dakota" window. Today I kept a log of what the typical day has been like
for me at the shelter with our vulnerable adult clients--except, really,
this is only HALF the typical day, since I got my mandatory stand down 24
orders at noon.

Shelter: 80+ vulnerable medical and affective needs clients. Heavily
staffed by RC volunteers, community mental health case workers for clients,
medical and nursing team, law enforcement, national guard.

Monday: PM
6:00 RC orders all staff to "stay in place" because of deteriorating
weather. No travel: "Wherever you are, you stay." This was no problem for
those of us overnighting with clients at shelters, because we were staying
anyway. Midnightish? Hit the cot in shelter.

Tuesday: AM
1:00 Medical emergency. EMT called. Client transported to hospital. 5:30
Request to assist anxious client. Depressed elderly male. Talking about
leaving shelter on foot to go home. Ten or so inches of snow on the ground
at the time plus 30 mph winds. Client stays, but must continue to meet with
him and his partner off-and-on all morning long. 7:00 RC shelter staffing
and update. 8:00 Breakfast served. Work the lines, talk to clients,
respond to special requests and need for assistance. 8:45 Medical issue.
Sick male in dorm area. 9:30 Client checks out of shelter for home.
Consult about pros and cons of decision. Client calls cab and checks out.
9:45 Medical emergency. EMT called. Client transported to hospital. 10:45
All-shelter meeting with clients to update on status of evac orders.
Clients told "maybe" starting Wednesday and Thursday. 11:00 RC staffing on
meeting the needs of vulnerable clients. 11:15-Noon Work the commons area
responding to client request and concerns.

Tuesday: PM
Noon Lunch served. Work the lines, talk to clients, respond to special
requests and need for assistance. Noon Call from supervisor to stand down
for 24. Informed that day mental health replacements are in transit. 12:30
Day shift RC mental health replacements arrive. Start the updating and
transitioning process. While that is ongoing.... 12:30 Medical emergency.
Client isolated from general sleeping area for possible flu. 1:00 Missing
client report. Client located. Walked out of shelter in heavy snow to
store 2 miles away. Law enforcement updated on status. 1:45 Call from RC
mental health colleague at another shelter with information about potential
domestic situation with shelter client. Former spouse may be on way to find
former spouse. Law enforcement notified. 2:00 Walk out the door, get in
the car, and leave! Become disoriented in snow, takes 20 minutes to figure
out which direction I'm headed :-) I NEVER get lost!

During these specific logged events, I was walking the floor meeting and
reassuring clients, problem-solving with clients and staff, brainstorming
ways to improve overall shelter morale, filing reports and updates for RC,
assisting clients with responses to questions. Constant motion. My legs
and back are killing me.

One of the dangers of disaster relief work is the inability to know when to
stop. None of us are immune from that blindness, so I am grateful for a RC
mental health supervisor who knows me and when to kick my butt for a stand
down 24. For the record, she is also a LPC, so we speak the same language
:-) I need this 24. The smell of urine, vomit, dirty clothes, bodies in
need of personal hygiene, the emotional pain and anxieties from clients
begin to take their toll even on me after the last 24/7 few days in shelter.
I go to tend to a few of my own personal hygiene needs (who DO you spell
hygiene anyway? I'm using a Dell, so it won't tell me. Hygene? No, that's
not right. Well, you get it) and try and get a longer spell of sleep than 5
or 6 interrupted hours with 80+ of my closest new friends. Since arriving
last week, I have traveled 400+ miles responding to the good people of the
Fargo/Moorhead region. As in all national disaster responses, there are
faces and exp! eriences you will never forget. It is essential--both for
them and me--that I get back by noon tomorrow to be there to say goodbye to
any of the clients I've had the opportunity to work with in two shelters the
lasts few days, should the go home clearance/transitioning begin. Saying
goodbye is the least I can do for these good people, and I need it for my
own closure, as well. My prediction is that after this current group of
shelter clients depart, I will be back on the road again to respond to "hot
shot" problems as they arrive. The river flooding moves further north. So
shall we.

If you feel compared to do something, please consider a donation to your
local or national Red Cross. The money will be well spent. As the sign on
the side of the RC emergency response vehicles say, the food and supplies
given in disaster relief effort is an "outright gift from the American
people." That is you, me, and us. We are all RC neighbors in Fargo today.
Tomorrow, Fargo will be RC neighbors to others. One day, maybe even you and
me."

My heroes? Not the athletes making 25 million dollars per year whining about their need for more money so that they can "support their family".

My heroes are the ones who put others before self and as a result help others and gain untold riches good for the heart and soul.

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"

The Red River is Doing It's Thing

As many of you know, I work for the American Red Cross and am very proud of it's mission and it's people.
It is times like this that I am especially proud of those who volunteer to rush into harms way in hopes of making a difference.
There is great sacrifice...time away from work (many times without pay), time away from family and many times, the absence of a warm comfortable bed to get a few winks.
On their own time, they spend countless hours in a classroom or in the field taking the necessary training so that they can be prepared for duty like they are experiencing as you read this.
For a week now, many of our volunteers from our chapter have been on the ground serving thousands of meals to other volunteers filling sandbags, building dikes and those that have been displaced from their homes wondering if they will have a home to come back to.
Others from our office are working in shelters and others (our Red Cross nurses) are taking care of the physical needs of our clients and our workers.
And then we have our mental health professionals. The mental health needs of those worn thin by the pressure are great.
One of our mental health professionals from our office writes a daily blog and he has captured many of the thoughts and feelings.



"Colleagues and Friends

An quick email sent out this morning around 8:00 a.m. bounced back to me, so
if you are getting a second one of these, I apologize. This is an update as
of 7:00 p.m. Thursday, March 26th.

This has been a brutal two days for the people of the Red River Valley and
its tributaries. Temperatures have been in the 20s with winds upwards of 30
m.p.h. Driving in yesterday was in snow, the last 60 miles over glazed ice.
Sandbaggers and volunteers are working 24/7 against a water that fails to
crest and continues to refuse to follow predictions; it continued to snow
all day yesterday and last night. The latest word is that the crest will
not come until Sunday and when it does it will be 2 or more feet over the
1997 levels. Optimism and hope are continually bashed by more snow, wind,
and rising water. Many remember the last floods and have discovered that
those anxieties never went away, they have just been dormant. Local first
responders often serve at personal cost to their own homes; while they are
busy evacuating others, their own property is at risk--heroes in the truest
sense of the word.

Mental health was immediately assigned to the field yesterday. Most of
yesterday was spent in the rural areas which are, for now, some of the worst
impacted areas--when and if we could get in because the roadway was still
above water. In many instances, it is the only strip of land which is above
water. I-29 south of Fargo is about 12 inches from being covered. We have
worked with assisting agencies within the federal govt (FEMA, Coast Guard,
National Guard) and local law enforcement to support local citizens as they
are evacuated by air and water. If you had told me that the Coast Guard
would be rescuing people in North Dakota driving airboats across snow
covered and packed fields and miles and miles of flooded lands, I would have
said you're nuts, but that's what we've been interacting with for the last
two days. We have also worked the helidrop areas with evacuees. Shelters
are beginning to get more people as additional areas have to be abandoned.
A typical scenario: After days of 24/7 sandbagging on an "island" of high
ground and keeping the water at bay, homeowners lose their home when water
collapses the basement walls and rises from underneath the house. They are
evaced by helicopter or airboat with a couple of garbage bags full of
clothes and the family pets--if there's not enough time for both, then they
come with the pets. And this story is repeated over and over. A
90-year-old woman is airboat evacued; she declares it to be the most
excitement she's had in the last 30 years.

Tomorrow we return to work with the Fargo area emergency operations center
to serve both staff and clients as needed. These are short days--only 12
hours each. Longer days await all of us. We are tired, but that is to be
expected, and the least we can do for those who need help."


This is a rough time for everyone involved....both the residents and the thousands of volunteers.
I am so very proud of our Red Cross volunteers who have put their lives on hold and live by the words "Service First Before Self."
I am also proud of my staff who have worked so hard training these folks so they could be totally prepared, wherever they go.

The needs are so great right now and if you are wanting to help, you can do so by making a contribution to the Red Cross. Here is the link.
American Red Cross

It costs money to provide this service and we rely on the public for that support.

Im am sorry (not really) for such a serious post, but I just had to recognize some of our folks who are working so hard to help.

Tune in again soon for another edition of "Now What Are They Doing?"