Katrina
Even where I now live in Huntsville, AL -- over an 8 hour drive from New Orleans -- there are enough evacuees that the local Red Cross chapter has opened a shelter and a service center. I spent 6 hours today (and will spend 11+ hours tomorrow...) working at the service center where evacuees are given food, water, and money. I arrived at the 1st Baptist Church Life Center at noon to find over hundreds of people standing in a line outside.
After a few false starts, I found myself "assigned" to the "Records and Reports" office. Originally I was just supposed to sign out a bunch of DOs (Disbursing Orders) and have my own table as a Family Services person, but I was pressed into service in the R&R office instead. I spent all afternoon sorting paperwork and doing accounting-type jobs. Much of my work involved tracing 901 (the standard case file folder) forms because the carbon paper "flimsy" attached to it smears too much. It seems unusual that ARC would use a form that essentially has to be filled out twice...
We processed about 100 clients today, and I went over at least half of the forms. One "client" may be one person or a family of 6 -- there's one case file per family that shares the same (original) address. In reality we probably helped close to 250 people today. Almost everyone was from New Orleans itself, or nearby little towns which I remember from my summer internship with NASA in that area. Some of the simple, few word notes about the cases were just heartbreaking. Many families know that their homes are right now still underwater. At least one family wasn't even in New Orleans when the storm hit -- they were on vacation in California and haven't been able to return, so they don't even know the status of their house. One woman's trailer was washed away while she was still there -- she wasn't able to evacuate until a relative sent her gas money. One of the ones that touched me the most was a case without any 'adults' listed -- an 18 year old and 17 year old came in and listed themselves as children. Their mother is in the military and away from home.
After 5 continuous hours of writing, my hand was cramping more than I think it ever has before. But there was no end of work to be done, and I'll be back at it again first thing tomorrow morning.
I just wish there were more I could do. : (
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(Anonymous)
2005-09-04 22:30
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Hey you. I've been thinking about you since I first heard the news, hoping that you were okay, and somehow knowing that you were fine and right there helping as much as you could. I kept telling people, "I bet Kenny is there right now." I wish I could be there with you, and if I weren't starting my new job Tuesday and my new school Thursday, you know I'd have been on a plane days ago. Things have been a little crazy with me lately, but we should talk again soon. Hang in there, okay? You're amazing, and I miss you.
~Shenley~(Reply to this) (Thread) |
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