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?"
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