Below is what our volunteer Emery Graham wrote for redcross.org while deployed with public affairs to Illinois for 10 days helping with flooding there. He’ll post some personal observations in the days ahead.
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American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania public affairs volunteer Emery Graham, on deployment, working on an article and his photos at the Illinois flooding Disaster Operations Center
The American Red Cross helps families during the first days after a disaster and continues helping families and communities develop long term recovery plans. In the first few days after the flood waters receded from the Millpoint trailer park, in Sprayland, IL, debris was everywhere and the Red Cross provided rakes, shovels, and clean up kits to help the families begin to bring order to their surroundings.
Suzanne Neal and Ricardo Colon, Red Cross volunteers, have brought shovels and rakes to Jenny Sarver’s home. Jenny offered her home as the central pick up point for other families in the area. Jenny’s son Shaun, and his dog Angel, watched as Ricardo brought equipment onto the front porch. Shaun thought the flooded river was fun because he caught lots of fish and his first leopard frog. Jenny showed her appreciation with a big hug for Suzanne.
To date, in the Illinois flood areas, Red Cross volunteers have provided more than 39,000 bulk items and over 64,000 meals and snacks to affected families and individuals. Your support is vital in this effort and words of appreciation and gratitude are constantly voiced by the many individuals and families helped by your donations.
Valarie Trigg: ” Thank God for good neighbors. It has been a great help to have a warm meal. It really means a lot that the Red Cross is here.” Millpoint, Spring Bay, IL
Here’s link to more Illinois flooding photos, including several by Emery.
Below is a compilation of text messages from American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania mental health volunteer Danelle Stoppel about her recent experience helping people in Boston cope with the recent bombing there. (It starts with the most RECENT. Scroll down to see earlier ones.)
Danelle Stoppel, here with Dave Warren, a Red Cross disaster mental health volunteer from Rochester, NY, review the cases they’ve handled while working in Boston after the Boston Marathon bombings
The evening of day 2, DHM (Disaster Mental Health) workers were asked to attend the vigil for Sean Collier, the MIT police officer killed on MIT’s campus last week. His hometown put this event together in eight hours to honor him. As a Red Cross worker I am becoming very familiar with vigils and memorials for fallen police and firefighters. on national disaster responses (DRs) and in Philadelphia. I feel comfortable attending these events since while, we are not first responders, we work in cooperation with them everyday.
The short life of this police officer was remarkable. Sean’s mentor spoke of his desire to be a city police officer. Several days before his death, Sean was offered a local position and he was to start on June 3rd. The American Red Cross was here as a presence to witness his life.
Over the past two days, I have been working directly with families of the victims. Coordinated services to them are being delivered in an undisclosed location to ensure their privacy. This closely guarded environment affords these families the opportunity to register for a variety services being offered to them locally and nationally. The American Red Cross is one of those services.
While I can never know what our services accomplishes I do know what I gain from this experience. I have been able to directly connect with several families over the past three days as they attempt to recover. I have quickly become “Deedee,” my nickname, and that put them in my family/friends circle. That happens so quickly on a disaster response like this one. It reduces all of us to a pure human being without the barriers of class, race, language and religion. While it is very difficult to hear details of their loved ones injuries and prognosis, I am honored that I can be of service to them. Our work with the American Red Cross is essential, needed and appreciated
- Danelle Stoppel, April 24, 2013
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Last Friday (April 19) I was deployed to Boston as a disaster mental health worker. We entered Boston shortly after the city wide lockdown was lifted. A city wide lockdown is a very new experience to disaster relief. No one including Red Cross disaster workers could leave their homes, hotels, etc…On day two, the city returned to new normal with the presence of military personnel in military transport vehicles on every corner of the downtown area.
Police personnel from many states as well as FBI, Homeland Security, and National Guard were everywhere. It was a very different feeling than my typical disaster responses. Whole areas of Boston were shut down because they were FBI crime scenes. Whole blocks were evacuated and residents could not return home.
A Memorial developed on blocks close to the marathon site and on MIT’s campus. The local volunteers from the Boston chapter of the American Red Cross was very Involved in the mental health response as well. It was wonderful to be paired with a local person as we worked on outreach activities. On this response, everyone has been impacted. This is so different from our usual experience in the Red Cross. No one in this area is untouched.
On day two I was assigned to work with Boston marathon volunteers who are gathering to work through their experience. While the event was scheduled for three hours we stayed for six. Their overwhelming feelings filled the room and it was difficult to remain dry eyed. These people volunteered for this event for years and have always had a feeling of great joy working this event. Medical volunteers who came to help runners with injuries, dehydration and exhaustion found themselves in trauma/triage mode. While their training pulled them through to accomplish the task, their emotions were atypical and the joy of their yearly event turned into overwhelming sadness.
- Danelle Stoppel, April 23, 2013
Danelle, pictured here in July 2012 while on deployment in Colorado, providing mental health services to a man who’s home was destroyed by a wildfire.
Here’s your chance to create videos about a great organization and its wonderful people. Be an American Red Cross Southeastern PA video production intern.
You’ll have the opportunity to shoot and edit stories about responses to local disasters like fires, hurricanes, floods, etc. You’ll meet some of the most amazing people and get to document their work.
You’ll create videos seen by hundreds of people, many of them some of Philadelphia’s most influential leaders.
You’ll be helping one of the world’s most recognized brands get the message out about its work.
And you’ll have fun.
Go to Youtube.com/redcrossphilly to check out the kind of videos you’d be shooting and editing. You may also have the chance to work on a feature length documentary about our one of a kind Red Cross House – The Center for Disaster Recovery.
Below is a description of the position and the skills we are seeking. College credit is not required, but highly preferred.
American Red Cross, Southeastern PA Internship Opportunity:
Video Production Intern
Purpose: The video production intern will work to produce and edit videos for the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania that will be seen by many high level and influential leaders in the corporate, non-profit, and governmental worlds.
Key Responsibilities:
Enthusiastic about supporting the American Red Cross mission
Digitizing video clips and organizing them on internal servers. Ability to convert and save clips from Mac to PC and vice versa crucial.
Helping to manage our YouTube Channel
Filming/editing/selecting video and sound bites and/or creating graphics to make a video anywhere from 45 seconds to 8 minutes long which will be used for a variety of internal and external events and promotion
Assistance with special events, depending on the time of year, including media and client outreach ahead of events, setting up signage, social media during events, escorting of media and VIPs, filming interviews for Chapter, social media videos, etc.
Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Editing and videography skills a must, experience with Adobe Creative Suite highly preferred.
Must have access to editing and videography equipment capable of handling DVDs, photos, and other digital media.
Must be reliable and professional
Working knowledge of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or Vimeo.
Must be able to handle multiple tasks at once.
Ability and flexibility to work odd hours when necessary for special events with advanced notice or disaster response with possibly little to no notice.
Must go through interview process, complete American Red Cross volunteer application and pass background check.
Commitment to the Red Cross mission of helping others prevents, prepare for, and respond to disasters.
Creative vision with the ability to turn vision into results.
Work under tight deadlines.
Ability to work collaboratively, yet sometimes be able to work with little supervision.
Excellent project management skills.
Writing experience a plus
Calm demeanor.
Reports to: Communications Specialist and Director of Communications
Time Commitment: Ideal candidate can commit to 12-20 or more hours a week on a set schedule with flexibility for early and later special events. Schedule and hours are negotiable as related to requirements for intern credits. Internship lengths are negotiable with candidate and requirements for intern credits. Ideal length would be Spring, Summer and Fall terms (12-15 weeks)
This is an unpaid internship but may qualify for college credit.
To apply, send resume and letter to Sarah Pabst at Sarah.Pabst@redcross.org
Almost three weeks ago Superstorm Sandy roared ashore and devastated vast parts of our region. She destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of people, disrupting and/or inconveniencing the lives of millions of others. I’ve wanted to write about this for more than a week, but whenever I set aside time to do it, something more pressing always came up.
American Red Cross Southeastern PA staff at the scene of a massive fire in the Rockaways section of Queens. The fire was a direct result of Superstorm Sandy.
For starters, I have mixed feelings about the result of Sandy. On the one hand, I feel eternally lucky that my home was spared any damage. I didn’t even lose power. Most of my friends were also spared. My brother and his family in north Jersey had no power for more than a week, but otherwise were fine. I am also grateful the Philadelphia area largely dodged a bullet. Yes many people had damage to their homes and cars, and tens of thousands lost power, but relatively speaking, Philadelphia and its immediate area avoided a catastrophe.
That’s obviously not the case with our friends and neighbors to the east and north. This is why I’m conflicted. I feel terrible about what has happened along the Jersey shore and New York. It’s awful. Basically, I’m glad it didn’t happen here, but heartbroken it happened there.
American Red Cross Southeastern PA staffers stop at this home in the Rockaways section of Queens during a tour of just some of the damage. This home in many ways is symbolic of the damage Sandy inflicted.
No matter the conflicted feelings I have about Sandy’s destruction, however, one thing I am not conflicted about is my pride in the Red Cross. No non-governmental or military organization can do what the Red Cross does on the scale it does it, as efficiently and effectively as the Red Cross. NOT ONE. Sure things haven’t been perfect, but the Red Cross is fulfilling its promise and its mission to alleviate human suffering. We are providing emergency relief to tens of thousands of people every day. There is no disputing that.
American Red Cross Southeastern PA spent thousands of dollars on food on its way to New Jersey to deliver food and supplies to hundreds of people.
American Red Cross Southeastern PA staffers hand out food and supplies to hundreds of people at a Rite Aid in a hard hit area of Jersey City, NJ
Southeastern PA has sent (and will continue to send) dozens of volunteers for several week deployments to help with things like food and supply distribution and mental health counseling.In addition to that, we send dozens of volunteers for day-long and weekend trips to NY and NJ. Many drive the big trucks that distribute food and supplies. Others literally walk door to door in hard hit neighborhoods (video below).
There will be always be critics. The Red Cross is not and should not be above criticism. But any criticism that attacks the effort and will of the Red Cross and its volunteers and staff nationwide, is entirely misguided. The dedication and commitment of a Red Crosser is unparalleled. Period. End of story. There are bound to be missteps during a relief operation the size and scope of Sandy. Perfection, though, is not the goal because the Red Cross does not set unattainable goals. Success is the goal. And by any measure the Red Cross response to his point has been a success. And the ongoing support the Red Cross is receiving is a remarkable reflection of that.
I love my job. I love the feeling I have knowing I work for an organization dedicated to helping people. But I won’t lie; there have been plenty of days when I couldn’t wait to get home. I couldn’t wait for this to be over. I couldn’t wait for my phone to stop ringing and my email to stop buzzing. And I wasn’t even in NY or NJ.
Just like with any job, there are frustrations, politics, and silly rules; days when it feels “like just a job.” But in the midst of a disaster, those things ultimately don’t matter. You jump into action. You do what needs to be done. You hope you’re doing some good and helping people.
Now I can confidently say that I’m no longer hoping. I know for sure that I am.
(Below, compilation of news clips summarizing American Red Cross Southeastern PA preparations for and response to Sandy.)
This is not the first time Palisades School District Superintendent Dr. Bridget O’Connell has spent a few days in a shelter. Just about this same time last year during Hurricane Irene this school district opened its doors to the community. “Last year we didn’t have the same kind of power outages but we opened the middle school for showers and hot meals,” recalled Dr. O’Connell.
Palisades School District Superintendent Dr. Bridget O’Connell at an office inside the Red Cross shelter at Palisades High School set up to help people displaced by Hurricane Sandy. photo: Erik Knight/American Red Cross
The school has long been the center of this community where the district serves families in five townships covering 100 square miles. Dr. O’Connell sits alongside Donna Holmes, director of community relations and development and I in a dimly lit room off the main hallway of the building that houses those impacted by Hurricane Sandy over this last week. Their faces are wind burned and they pull small hand warmer packets out of their gloves without taking their eyes off their smart phones. “Tuesday AT&T was down, so these became paperweights,” she says with a smile, “it’s an awesome team I work with.”
A Red Cross volunteer assists Bucks County residents and other community volunteers distribute supplies outside Palisades High School Photo: Erik Knight/American Red Cross
As the weekend approached, it’s a juggling act. Making sure all of the evacuees are being cared for, along with volunteers from the Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Palisades Youth Crew. There’s a steady stream of people passing through the room carrying boxes of food to the kitchen area. “There’s going to be stuffing and turkey and something with apples apparently,” Dr. O’Connell laments as a volunteer carts bags of apples past us. When I ask about school on Monday, she pulls what was a sheet of copy paper out of her pocket with a diagram on it, “It’s all sketched out. If power is restored ‘Plan A’ is to move the shelter to another area.”
Food at the Palisades High School Red Cross shelter in Bucks County, PA. The food was available to shelter residents and people from the community in need of a hot meal. Photo: Erik Knight/American Red Cross
As power continues to comeback on, many residents are coming to the school for a hot lunch, supplies like shovels, work gloves and water. But perhaps even more important is the sense of community the school is able to provide. “Just talking to people…making it personal,” she says, “things are still optimistic compared to other places (hit by Hurricane Sandy).” Donna Holmes highlights the importance of the students learning through service. “Volunteering like this promotes leadership. It gives them a real glimpse of what it takes,” she says, “student, leadership, service.”
Palisades High School Red Cross shelter residents Nikki and Sheila share a laugh while waiting for their power to be restored. Photo: Erik Knight/American Red Cross
Our time together passes quickly. As Dr. O’Connell puts her gloves back on and gathers the empty zip lock back that held her cold cut sandwich from lunch she says, “We set a very high standard last year and we’re proud of that.” That pride shows.
About 20-30 people called the Palisades High School gymnasium home following Hurricane Sandy struck Bucks County. photo: Erik Knight/American Red Cross
We walk back down the hall as Donna and she point out key players in this relief effort; school board members, the principal, families of students who are also storm victims but are volunteering. We head back out to the parking lot where cars continue to line up and get supplies. More pallets of bottled water are coming and going. It is a true community effort, neighbor helping neighbor, strangers becoming friends, kids learning to become leaders, all in the parking lot of Palisades High School, a community institution.
I never need convincing that Red Cross volunteers are the salt of the earth. I know that already. I don’t need to be at an event to know how dedicated and committed Red Cross volunteers are. But there is just something about our annual Celebration of Volunteers event that makes what they do individually and collectively awe inspiring. No matter how much you already appreciate them, this event makes you appreciate them even more.
More than 400 American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania volunteers were on hand for the 10th anniversary of the event. It honors all Red Cross SEPA volunteers and the amazing work they do each year for disaster survivors in the Philadelphia region and across the country.
I know many of the volunteers personally. I’ve met them at disaster scenes or various functions. They all have their own reasons for volunteering. Each brings their own skill sets and strengths. Just like any job.Noel for example, received our Disaster Action Team Captain of the Year. He was so deserving and got a rousing cheer when his name was announced. He’s very unassuming and upon first meeting him, you’d never figure him for a take charge, DAT captain. But he owns his own company that does computer techy stuff I’ll never understand. He is a leader by any definition. And we are lucky to have him. There’s Jen, who is not only a Philadelphia firefighter full-time and Red Cross volunteer, but she also runs Red Paw, a non-profit that takes care of pets temporarily following a disaster so families can focus on their recovery. She showed up to the event in a sling because one of the dogs in her care bit her arm and the injury was so bad she required surgery. But that has not deterred her. I was tweeting back and forth with her a few days ago as she was responding to a disaster. I didn’t know about the attack. She was already back at it just days after the attack. She’s a better person than I am. There’s Sarah Shabaglian. I had never met her. She’s no longer technically a volunteer. But at 93 years old, she was being honored for her service to the Red Cross and our Armed Forces. She served in World War II in Italy and Okinawa helping our GIs and their spouses get back to the U.S. She was decked out in her full Red Cross military uniform. What an amazing moment that was for the entire room.
Noel with his Disaster Action Team Captain of the Year award at our Celebration of Volunteers event. Pictured with SEPA’s Volunteer Chair, Chairman of the Board and 6ABC’s Alicia Vitarelli
Jen with her special partnership award for her work with the Red Cross on behalf of Red Paw. Pictured with SEPA Chair of Volunteers, Chairman of the Board, and 6ABC’s Alicia Vitarelli
Sarah (Sally) Shabaglian received a special Services to the Armed Forces legacy award for her work on behalf of the Red Cross during World War II
I could give you example after example of volunteers with amazing stories. These were just three. The volunteers don’t do what they do to get awards and recognition. Many don’t even want it. But to me this event is about more than just recognition. It’s a way for all the volunteers to enjoy each other outside of a moment of disaster. A chance for them to reconnect or meet for the very first time. The Red Cross is a family after all. Sometimes dysfunctional, but always caring, always looking out for each other and those we serve.
One thing I am always struck by when I meet a volunteer for the first time and tell them what I do. They almost always respond by saying, “I’m just a volunteer.” I always try to nicely correct them. I am the one who should be saying “I’m just an employee.” I get paid to serve the Red Cross. I get paid to serve those who have been through a disaster. They do this because they love the Red Cross, they love the mission, they love helping.
Our CEO really struck a chord with me during her remarks at the event when she said the volunteers are the reason she gets up and goes to work in the morning.
“I don’t like asking for things,” she said. “But asking for things is my job. And I do it because of you. You and your work make me want to ask for things.”
That’s pretty powerful. And it hits home with me because the Celebration of Volunteers is a lot of work. Both in the planning and execution. A lot goes on behind the scenes. A lot. It’s hard. It’s time consuming. It’s comparable to Red Ball, at least when it comes to my role. But the people in the room that night deserve it. My effort pales in comparison to theirs. They make it worth getting up in the morning on days you’d rather not.
So on this day after the Celebration of Volunteers, we are already thinking about ways to make next year’s event even better and ways to improve the entire volunteer experience in general.
So if you’re looking for a place where your volunteerism is needed and appreciated. Where your efforts have a direct impact on lives that you can see. Where you’re part of a small local and large global family consider the Red Cross. Consider being the reason why others go to work in the morning.
Video highlighting volunteer deployments (4 minutes)
Mission Moment from Celebration of Volunteers featuring the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (1 min 15 sec)
Volunteers Kay and Fred before leaving for Florida.
Volunteer Janice Winston being interviewed by a local TV station moments before leaving for Florida.
That’s what Red Crossers do. They go into places before, during, and after a natural disaster when most people are leaving. 15 people from my chapter are there now. I, however, am not one of them. I’d like to be, but I’m not and truth be told, part of me really wishes I was. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. But for something like this, as part of the American Red Cross Advanced Public Affairs Team (APAT), I would normally be on one of the first planes down there. Being an APAT member means being the voice and sometimes the face of the Red Cross during a national disaster, like a hurricane or tornado. I can sum it up in a DM I got over twitter from a fellow APAT member that asked the question, “Why aren’t you deploying sir?”
My answer: I’m sitting this one out, because I’m about to go on vacation. I know “boo-hoo” for me. “Poor Dave is missing a hurricane to go sit on a beach in the sun with his family.”
Again, I’m not complaining. But hear me out. I would never wish for a disaster, but what is happening in Florida is exactly what I’m trained for. It’s the most rewarding and exciting part of my job. There are about 50-60 other APAT members at the Red Cross, many of whom are in Florida now. They are great to work with. And they are already doing an amazing job. I miss being a part of that.
A Red Cross APAT member on the Weather Channel talking about preparing for and responding to Isaac.
It’s funny, today I’m sort of (but not really) complaining that my vacation was interrupting my ability to respond to a hurricane. But this time last year, I was complaining that a hurricane was interrupting my vacation.
Irene hit this very same weekend. The same weekend my vacation was supposed to begin. But unlike Isaac, Irene was striking where I live; where my Red Cross Chapter is. Not helping was not an option. I spent the first night of my vacation in a Red Cross shelter instead of walking the boardwalk eating junk food. Over the next few days, I helped my chapter and our national headquarters manage media and response in the Philly area. My vacation got delayed. I was bummed. My family was even more bummed. Mother Nature had picked an inconvenient time to show her wrath.
Same goes for this week. Any other week, I could help with the Red Cross response. But I wasn’t about to miss my vacation again. I am not about to disappoint my family again. The Red Cross will manage just fine without me.
The moral of this story is not that Dave likes to complain, though I realize it is easy to draw that conclusion. The moral is, disaster never waits for when it’s convenient. Mother Nature can choose to be angry at any moment. She can disrupt my life, your life, all our lives at the drop of a hat.
That’s why you need to be prepared. That’s why you need to have a plan for what you would do if Mother Nature was suddenly inconvenient. Don’t just assume it can wait until tomorrow. If you need help with developing that plan, go to our website, RedCrossPhilly.org. It has lots of great, free advice.
A secondary moral is to be thankful for the Red Cross and the many, many thousands of volunteers willing to have their lives interrupted on a moment’s notice to go into a potentially dangerous place, to help people they never met recover from something that’s usually far worse than just an inconvenience.
A disaster and media response coordinated 140 characters at a time.
Most people would agree social media has great value during large scale disasters. I can tell you first hand about the countless times I used social media to spread the word about thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards and fires to thousands and thousands of people at once.
But few can see the value in social media for the smaller scale disasters, like a single home fire or when a car crashes into a house. You may be thinking ”Car into House, that’s random.” Maybe so, but that’s exactly what happened last night and what I want to use to demonstrate the important role social media can play even during a small disaster.
Yesterday afternoon I saw a tweet from Fox 29 reporter Chris O’Connell that he was working on a story for the 6pm news about a family forced from their home after a car smashed into their house. I emailed Chris with information on how the family could get help from the Red Cross. I didn’t get a response right away. Since I wanted to make sure the family got help as soon as possible and seeing the possibility the Red Cross would get positive news coverage (I am the Communications Director after all), I got impatient. So I replied to one of his tweets saying the Red Cross could help.
Here is the initial tweet exchange between Fox 29′s Chris O’Connell and myself
I got a tweet back a little while later from Chris saying the family was calling for help now. Our emergency response center (We call it the Bridge) dispatched a team immediately and help was soon on the way. That was a very gratifying tweet to read. It may be a small thing to just about everyone else, but a big deal to me.
The family was very upset. Their reaction was typical of what our volunteers see everyday after a fire or other disaster. It’s very traumatic to lose your home and the uncertainty that comes with it. And even though the Red Cross couldn’t fix everything, it could provide some comfort, some hope, in what can seem like a hopeless situation.
I’ve included below an edited version of how Chris O’Connell’s 6pm and 10pm stories turned out and the prominent mention the Red Cross got in them. But the most gratifying part was not the publicity we got, but rather, the knowledge that the family last night and for many nights to come would be staying at our one of a kind Red Cross House – Center for Disaster Recovery with a roof over their heads, clothes on their back, and food in their stomach — soon to be on the path back to independent living, thanks to the Red Cross.
You hear us all the time talking about the importance of being prepared for an emergency. We pound that message into your head just about every opportunity we get. I realize, it may seem excessive. Maybe, maybe not. But let me tell you, being the person who helps deliver those messages, repetition sure came in handy for me last night.
You see in the midst of a three day heat wave, the power in my house went out. A transformer down the street blew and our entire block was without any power. No lights. No TV. No A/C on the hottest night of the year. But other than it being an inconvenience, there wasn’t much concern. We knew what to do. I had my trusty Red Cross preparedness kit right by the door. I put it there so I knew exactly where I could find it so I wouldn’t be wandering around in the dark looking for the flashlight that was inside.
I also knew where we would go if the power was out for a long time and it got too hot to stay in the house. Having a plan for where to go is critical to every emergency plan.
I was lucky enough to have my smartphone and a laptop with lots of battery power. So I did what any Red Cross communicator does in a situation like that, I tweeted and recorded a video (below). I figured, this was a good chance to put into practice what the Red Cross preaches.
In the end, it wasn’t a major emergency. It was barely even a minor one. Thankfully, by midnight, the power was back on and we never had to leave the house. The whole matter turned out to be a drill of sorts in case there is a major emergency, like the tornado warnings that had my family huddled in a corner in the dark during the height of Hurricane Irene last summer. Or the blizzard two years ago that also knocked out power and we couldn’t go anywhere.
“Imagine a path of destruction a mile wide along City Avenue from the Schuylkill Expressway to West Chester Pike.” (about a seven mile stretch)
That’s how I often characterized to Philadelphians what Joplin was like a day after an EF 5 tornado tore through the town. Even that though doesn’t truly do the destruction justice. If your home or business was in the path of the tornado, it got destroyed. Not just damaged, but destroyed. The tornado spared nothing. I wrote about my experience one year ago in a series of blog posts.
So today being the one year anniversary of that tornado, I wanted to share a few thoughts.
First, I am struck by the immense progress that has been made in such a short amount of time in Joplin. I’ve been following the progress via twitter and online. It’s remarkable how resilient people there are. Sure there is still plenty to do, but by most accounts 65-80% of businesses, homes, and government buildings have been rebuilt. Schools and playgrounds that were wiped out one year ago, once again are home to children. (USAToday article about Joplin now)
Of course the physical wounds are sometimes much easier to fix than the emotional ones. No doubt, Joplin residents are still scarred by what happened and won’t ever forget it. But they aren’t dwelling on it. Even within hours after the tornado hit, people who lost homes, businesses, even loved ones, were helping others. Spending most of my life on the East Coast, the worst I’ve ever endured was a blizzard or mild hurricane. In general, we don’t live in fear of our entire city being blown off the map. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity yet to return to Joplin, but based on what I’ve read and what I’ve heard from the many people I’ve spoken to there, the people of Joplin are determined to rebuild a better city than the one nature destroyed. There is no manual on what to do. They have to figure it out as they go. But, they know it can’t be done alone. Joplin’s victims have to rely on family, friends, and total strangers. (CBS News story about anniversary in Joplin) For my own part, I will forever be changed by witnessing the human spirit’s ability to endure.
Professionally, Joplin was the most rewarding week I have ever been through. In my role with public affairs, it wasn’t my job to set up cots, hand out supplies, or provide grief counseling. The three other SEPA Chapter workers deployed to Joplin with me provided those other vital roles, along with hundreds of other Red Cross workers. I was there to help get the word out to the people of Joplin and to the country at large about where to get help and how to give help. It’s a role I was proud to serve. I apply what I saw and learned in Joplin to everything I do with the Red Cross now. The impact is that lasting and that meaningful. (click here to watch brief video about SEPA’s role in Joplin)
I met some amazing people. I met a woman in her 90s who narrowly escaped being swept up by the tornado as she made it to a basement just in time. I met a Red Cross volunteer who lost two loved ones in the tornado, but was still at the shelter every day to help others. I met countless of people who were lucky to be alive, but fearful of the future. I got to witness several families, separated by the tornado and fearing the worst, get reunited at the Red Cross shelter.
So as I look back at Joplin one year later, I am still heartbroken by what happened there. But I am also heartened by how a city and a country came together under horrific circumstances. I am especially proud of the Red Cross, the only agency able to care for so many people for so long.
I will continue to keep the people of Joplin in my thoughts and prayers. I ask that you do too.
