Looking back...

I am now home, safe and sound in Saint Paul, MN... and here are some things I've learned (or re-learned) from my experience last week...

1) You can prepare for a disaster, but you can never be truly prepared for a disaster. Adding on to that, no two disasters are the same.

2) When working 12 hour days, humor is very important to keeping your sanity. So is being fed.

3) Courage is often found in the most unexpected places... for example the man I met in the trailer park that had been hit really hard by the flood. At first glance, he's nothing you expect to find in a hero... but the day of the flood, he rescued a good number of his neighbors, carrying some of them to safety on his shoulders when the water (with only God knows what in it...) got chest and even almost neck deep. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty heroic.

4) Wet, moldy insulation and gook left over by a flood smells awful.

5) Disasters bring out the best (the INCREDIBLE number of people who called in to volunteer, who just wanted to do something to help thier neighbors) and the worst (in this case, looters...) in people.

6) Winston Churchill had it right... "Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that matters".

Well, that's all I have for now. If I think of something else to share, I'll post again, otherwise, I'll talk to you again next time the Disaster Response Team is deployed.

Signing off... for now...

~Theresa

Last update from Columbus...

Hey all, I don't have a lot of time here, I just wanted to apologize for disappearing yesterday... I was pulled off the phones and brought over to the Volunteer Reception Center kind of unexpectedly and didn't have time to say anything. I'm just letting you all know that I'm great, and I'll post a nice, detailed message tomorrow, after I've had a chance to sleep. Mmmm, sleep. Anyway, have a good day!

~Theresa

Monday morning... our last full day here...

Good morning all!

Well, it's Monday, and we're leaving tomorrow. The week has just flown by. While I wish I could stay and help longer, I do have to admit that I'm ready to come home. I think the long work days are finally catching up with me. This morning we're back in the 2-1-1 call center, which I think will be open until 5, then we'll probably head over to the Volunteer Reception Center to help out there where we can while we're still here. I'm still not sure of the plan tomorrow... we need to leave Columbus by 11:30 to make it to Columbus to catch our flights, so we may come in here in the morning just to wrap everything up that we can before we leave.

Here's the latest news in The Republic:

http://www.therepublic.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=111&ArticleID=121261

Anyway, that's all I've got right now. I'll post more info when I hear anything.

~Theresa

Sunday... end of the workday...

Wow, it's been a crazy couple days. I don't even really know where to start. I've learned a lot about volunteer matching, for one thing. Turns out it's kind of complicated... but we think we've got a system now. Yee-haw! I'm not really sure what's going to happen tomorrow... I'll be at 2-1-1 again answering phones... they'll be crazy busy tomorrow since it's a) a Monday and b) (thanks a little bit to Tracy and I) the 2-1-1 number has been spread a little more this weekend.

I'm also learning about the way different 2-1-1s and Volunteer Action Centers and United Ways etc., all work together in different ways in different areas. It's actually kind of fascinating.

Anyway, a lot of work was done today by a lot of great volunteers. It's always great to get a phone call from someone letting us know that the job is done in a house... that the only thing left to do now is to let it dry out so they can start the rebuilding process. And then it's great to hear that volunteer ask to be put back in the hopper to be sent on another mission. I just can't stress enough how great our volunteers are!

Okay, I'm sure the others are itching to go home for some much deserved rest... I'll catch up tomorrow.

Night!!

~Theresa

Sunday morning

Hey all!

It's Sunday morning... I can't believe it's Sunday already! Just a quick update before I jump back in... we're still in the Volunteer Action Center here in Columbus... right now we're doing a bunch of data entry and matching volunteers up with the people who need help to clear out the flood damage. Tracy and I took a drive last night down one of the road near the flooded area... man is there a lot of damage. The mountains of trash that had been pulled out of these houses were almost bigger than the houses themselves! I want to quick thank all of the volunteers that are going out to help these people clean out their homes and get them ready to rebuild... that's such hard, dirty, draining work... you guys are Superpeople! And I do have to give a quick shout out to Angie, the relatively new director of the Volunteer Action Center... she's only supposed to be working 15 hours a week, and she's only been in this postion for a matter of weeks, but you would never know that by the way she's handling things here. She seems to be a pro at this, she's doing a fantastic job!

So yeah, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll have a chance to update before I leave here in about 10 hours. Until then, have a fantastic day!

And Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!

~Theresa

End of Saturday...

Today has been a crazy day... a day full of calling volunteers to see if they can come in and help someone RIGHT NOW!, calling people who filled out their assessments to clarify what exactly they need, a copy project of about 1500 copies that had me running from one end of the building to the other to make sure both of the copiers still had paper, staples, and that the finisher (finished copy holder thing) wasn't too full causing the copier to just roll over with weakness, etc. At the end of the day, Todd from Samaritan's Purse came in to talk with us a bit... turns out the HOOGE cavassing project we were scrambling to recruit for was the first stage for what they do... they bring in people, equipment, and knowledge to areas affected by disaster and start people on the road to recovery. They'll go into a home and do what they need to do to get the home ready for rebuild, which means tearing out all the bad stuff and preparing it to dry, which takes about three weeks. They do all of this at no cost to the homeowner or the local agencies... they're literally "good Samaritans". They pretty much rock. And a lot of them travel around doing this full time... kind of friendly, house-repairing nomads.

Anyway, now our day is done... it seems to have flown by! I'm about ready to sleep. I'll try and post something in the morning...

Night, all! ~T

Change of duty...

Hello all!

So, as of 5pm yesterday (when the 2-1-1 call center here in Columbus closes and the calls get routed up to Indianapolis), Tracy and I have been at the disposal of the Volunteer Action Center. We've been answering calls (our specialty) from people calling looking either to volunteer or from people in the flood affected areas looking for people to help them with the damage. Then we match people looking for help with the people looking to help.

Then last night we were charged with a project... find 200-250 to meet at the high school... this morning at 9am... for an orientation session then going out canvassing door to door in the flood affected areas to see who needs help and what their needs are, to make sure nobody falls through the cracks just because they haven't come across our number to call in to request help themselves. As of 9pm last night we had reached about 90 people... plus some local churches were sending groups of their own there... so hopefully we'll reach the number we need.

And now we're back in this morning at 7am... waiting on coffee and donuts... ready for the next wave of people to come in, now that it's Saturday and people won't have to request work off to come help. I hope we find something for everyone looking for work to do... it's so kind and generous of these people to give of their time and energy to come help!! I know it's pretty much impossible to match absolutely everyone to a volunteer post... some skill sets needed and time availabilities just make that impossible... but we're going to do our best to utilize as many of these wonderful people as we can. We wouldn't be able to do this without our amazing volunteers.

Oh, and I know all of you were very worried about this... but I did catch Battlestar last night. It was a really good one... very exciting. When I get back I may have to rewatch it... but until then, who is the fifth? What role will they play? And now we have to wait until the second half of the season. I hate when they do that. Sigh.

~Theresa

A picture... to give an idea of what's going on here...

I got this off The Republic website... just an idea of how much water they've had here...

Makes me sad...

I read this in The Republic (the local newspaper) just now... how sad.

7 more people arrested for looting, totaling 20

Seven more suspected looters have been arrested as police crack down on unwanted visitors in flood-damaged Columbus neighborhoods.

At least 20 people have been accused of stealing property from the yards of flood victims as they clear debris and belongings out of their house.

Police have said uninvited visitors, including sightseers and looters, should stay out of the city's hardest hit neighborhoods because it hinders recovery efforts.

What does the future hold?

I know they'll put me to work... the question is where, and doing what? I'm here in the call center until 5 tonight (when thier office closes and the calls are routed up to Indianapolis), but after that... tonight and this weekend is a mystery. Will I go out and interpret for volunteers in the Spanish speaking area of Columbus that was hit really hard by the floods? Maybe. Will the call center have to be open this weekend? Possibly. Will there be a ton of rain and wind and hail to make the situation here even worse? Geez, I hope not. Will stuff calm down enough this evening so I can watch the Battlestar Galactica mid season finale in the comfort of my hotel room? That would be nice. And yes, I am that much of a nerd. Anyway, only time will tell what my fate will be for the next few days...

Morning of Day 3

Good morning everyone!

The calls are starting to slow down a bit, which is giving me time to update here. As we were on our way in, we noticed more stuff on the sides of the road... as people were cleaning out the flood damage, the mountains of trash that needed to be picked up seemed to practically double overnight. It's so sad to see people's personal belongings just completely ruined, sitting out there on the side of the rode waiting to be picked up by the garbage man.

At this point it seems like most people have had thier immediate needs met... they have a place to sleep, places to go for clean water, clothing, food, and other basic goods. Now the lont-term recovery phase has started... cleaning everything out and trying to make it habitable again, and figuring out what buildings may never be habitable again. They're also working frantically to make the hospital useable again... they said on the news that Columbus went from having an amazing hospital to no hospital whatsoever.

One thing that has us worried this morning is the weather forecast... it looks like we're supposed to get a bunch of rain today... possibly a few inches... and that would NOT help the situation here. We were hoping last night that the weatherman was lying to us... but as of this morning, the sky was filled with ominous looking clouds and continued reports from the weatherman telling us to watch for rain that could hit sometime this afternoon, along with damaging winds and possible hail. So yeah. That's just super. I'm still hoping the weatherman was lying and that we'll just have lots of clouds, and no (or at least not much) actual rain. Here's to hoping!

Doing the work...

They've decided that they most need me to help answer the 2-1-1 phones to help cover the surge, and to help provide some respite for the people that have been on these phones pretty much since Monday... and they did a great job training me in, so I felt very prepared to start taking calls here. So far most of the calls have been from people looking for help with food, financial assistance to help cover some of their tremendous losses, shelter for those whose homes aren't safe enought to inhabit, and where to go to register themselves as flood victims to recieve assistance through FEMA. I've also gotten a few from people who either a) want to volunteer with the clean-up effort or b) want to donate to help out the victims. It's always great to see the outpouring of generosity that people have towards their neighbors.

Tracy (my cohort) has been charged with helping to keep all the ever-changing information up-to-date, along with Alicia, the resident resource updater. Personally, I think they have the harder job, having to keep on top of all that information. Us call center specialists just have to give the information that they collect to the people. They're doing amazing work... Everyone here is. Good job, ladies!!

Indiana... Day 2 (sort of)

Hello everyone!

I'm just setting this up now to keep everyone apprised of what's going on here in Indiana. There have been two of deployed here to Indiana, myself and Tracy from 2-1-1 in Colorado, to help field calls and collect and organize resource information related to the disaster that's going on here. If you're not familiar with what's been happening, here's an article describing the situation: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/16556102/detail.html You can also check out www.therepublic.com for the local goings on.

The first thing that struck me as we drove into Columbus was the piles of garbage on the sides of the road... the local trash collecters are going through and picking up the garbage that people are left with after cleaning out their flood-damaged homes. I also noticed a lake as we were driving up... then realized that there was a tree in the middle of it. That's when I realized that it was actually not a lake at all, but a field that had been completely flooded out.

It's been very stressful for the people here... the local 2-1-1 have been overwhelmed by this incident... many of them live in Columbus, which is actually relatively small, so while most of the people here are fine, they all know of someone who has been affected by the flooding, some of whom have lost EVERYTHING. The local staff people here have been working like crazy since Monday without a chance to breathe and process the situation, so right now they are having a much needed debriefing session to help them collect thier thoughts before the craziness starts up again for today.

That's all for now... I'll update the next chance I get.

~Theresa