Well, I can describe the last two days as nothing short of amazing. In these two (13 hour) days we in HS have really accomplished some great things. They were tough and emotional, but we really were able to make a difference. Late in the evening of night 3 we discovered that a condolence visit for the one fatality from the flooding had not yet been conducted. Because of this, I had the privilege of conducting this visit along with an excellent Disaster Mental Health (DMH) worker, Paul.
We visited with two sisters who lost their mother when her home was washed away in a flash flood. Sparing many details, we were able to help these sisters and truly make a difference in their lives. Today I heard from the DMH manager (Sam) that as he was having dinner with an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV, the vehicle that provides mobile feeding in affected areas) crew they began talking about a woman who got a meal from their truck earlier that day. The ERV crew told Sam that this woman had lost her mother in the flood and was visited by two Red Cross workers. She told the crew how much that visit meant to her and how much it had helped her and her sister. She told them how much she appreciated what the Red Cross had done for her and how much it was doing for the community. That one unsolicited compliment validates everything we do and reminds me of how important the mission of the Red Cross is. I knew I could not fix her situation, but to make even the slightest difference is all I can ask for.
After finishing the condolence visit we returned to Utica. After doing more of the same from the past few days and continuing to support the other HS workers in the field, we found another opportunity to really impact the community. We got word that a number of homes in a small affected area had wells which had been contaminated by the flood. As a result, they had no safe water supply. We first sent personnel into the field to verify the problem. When they arrived and confirmed that the wells were contaminated, Lee, the HS lead (my boss), and I swung into action. We had already notified the bulk distribution team that there were possibly a number of families who would need water. In under an hour, we moved from a confirmed need, to putting together critical information packets on well testing and cleaning, to sending those packets to the warehouse where they were attached to hundreds of gallons of water and sent to families in need. This is really what Red Cross is about. We identified a critical community need, found a way to address it, brought together multiple Red Cross groups, governmental agencies, and community organizations, and put the plan into action in extremely short order.
These two anecdotes are just that, two brief narratives among a sea of other successes over the past few days. We have orchestrated numerous outreach activities which put HS workers in the field to identify the needs of the community and address them. We have provided extraordinary amounts of public health information to those affected, gotten ill and injured clients the medical attention they need, and assisted a number of clients who were unable to replace their lost prescription. And, all the while, we were also providing staff health services, a role which saw taking staff to the emergency room, monitoring health conditions, and ensuring that our bulk distribution staff who work so hard stay safe and healthy.
All in all, the past two days gave us the opportunity to make a real difference in the community and it reinforced how much I want to continue in supervision, helping to orchestrate the incredible machine that is the American Red Cross.
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