Day 4

Well, day 4 is down and I can say it was a good one. We started by making some calls to clients and sending them some much needed assistance. It felt great to spend a few hours contacting people in need and doing what we could for them, even if it didn't involve leaving my folding chair and table. After that, we headed down to Tinton Falls, the regional ARC chapter for Southern New Jersey, to drop off the paperwork we picked up yesterday. After that, we headed down to the shore since it was only a few minutes away. We went to Asbury Park, an area that had experienced the brunt of the storm and had its fair share of damage. We saw 30-40 foot high piles of sand that had washed in and been scraped off the road. The shorefront areas were truly devastated, with some houses flooded, some wind damaged, and some entirely washed away. It was good to be able to go see the areas we are serving and see why we are here.

After that we headed back to headquarters. There we continued to work on our "hot shots" (our term for clients that specifically request our assistance, as opposed to canvassing for them) and I helped out the condolence team with some of their paperwork. Familiarizing myself with some of the condolence cases, it reminds me of my time in Chattanooga and the horrible fulfillment you get from helping someone who has lost their home, their livelihood, and their family. The cases here are just as hard as they were in Chattanooga, and it is tough to see again, but I am glad to see us doing everything we can to help them.

That was pretty much it for the day, I came back to the hotel and had a much needed couple of beers with some new Red Cross friends and now I'm off to bed before tomorrow and whatever it brings.