This week marks the 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Anniversary….interesting word to use for this mile stone, don’t you think? This revisiting of the devastation wreaked by forces of nature on hundreds of thousands of people. Anniversary….typically a word used to indicate “celebration” …in my book anyway. Oh sure, there are thousands of people who have every right to celebrate – they survived one of the worst disasters in recent American history. But I can’t help but think back to the many that didn’t make it out of the waters that swept away everything in its path…homes, cars, boats, and perhaps some would say, the soul of a city and its people.
As Hurricane Katrina honed in on its projected target, the Emergency Response Community began positioning resources – both material resources and personnel. At the time, I was employed by the American Red Cross, and it was my job to deploy people to areas affected (or about to be affected) by disaster. We were asked to “send the best of the best” for this event, knowing that it would take our very strongest and most capable volunteers and staff to meet this monster head on. So that’s what I did. I was proud of each and every volunteer I sent out the door to stage and await their call to duty. We had an amazing cadre of volunteers who were extremely capable, caring, and willing to do the tough jobs.
One of our strongest Red Cross volunteers was sent in to a “forward headquarters” area, to wait for landfall and oversee initial activities in that location. Immediately following Katrina’s landfall, this volunteer was without power, cell phone coverage, and a large portion of the support that he and his staff so critically needed (food, safe water, sanitary supplies, etc.). After a couple of days, he managed to get a message to me via email on what I hope was a somewhat damaged computer. I have to think that, as his messages were very disjointed and hard to follow sometimes. He told me later that he lost 20 pounds in the two weeks he was there. I guess living on peanut butter crackers will do that for you.
As a chapter employee, I spent a lot of time in the chapter coordinating, communicating (and worrying) in those early stages of the response. I vividly remember listening in on a Ham Radio Operator working out of our chapter one afternoon as he was trying desperately to reach members of Oklahoma’s DMAT Team (OK1). They had been sent to New Orleans, and their last communication was that they were stranded on a bridge that was becoming isolated by water. One member shared this about their situation “there are a lot of people in the water, some ok, some not. We’re dry so far…we’re not dead..yet.” Fortunately, with a lot of people working together on all ends of the spectrum, the team was delivered to solid ground safely. But in the office, we were all shaken to the core. We knew those guys – worked with many of them every day – and we thought we were going to lose them.
I began to truly worry about my volunteers that were down there. I had always encouraged them to hang onto my cell and home numbers, just in case and this was certainly no exception. I had people all over the affected areas, and I worried about each and every one of them every day. One day, I received a phone message from a buddy that works in another state. His note? “Found your truck, the truck and the girls are fine.” Ok – first, the phone message was signed with just his first name. I happen to know 3 men with that name, so then my mind began racing…Truck? Girls? Fine? Took a bit, but I finally figured out that he had come across our ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle used for mobile feeding), and the two ladies that were assigned to it were fine (meaning safe). They were in getting the tire fixed and then heading back out to their route…escorted by National Guardsmen. Not sure if I felt better before or after knowing where they were.
Volunteers came back sick, tired, worn to a frazzle, burned out, exhilarated, frustrated, depressed…you name it, they went through it. Only a few shared some of the things they saw. And I have to wonder about how they managed to hang on to their sanity and focus on the job at hand. Some volunteers that went to New Orleans or other areas so grossly affected by Katrina never volunteered again. Some volunteers that joined the Red Cross during Katrina are still with the organization today. And then there are the ones that were volunteers before Katrina….during Katrina…..and are still doing what they do best every single day. Meeting the needs of those made most vulnerable by disaster. But then, what would you expect? They are the best of the best.
There are a million stories out there from people that experienced Katrina. Some from the response view, some from the survivor view, and some from the general public view. All different – but all important and to be respected. We all came away from Hurricane Katrina changed in some way or another. It’s just a matter of channeling that change and making it matter, in some way, shape or form. Easy – huh?
Ripple Effects 
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