November
2, 2012
I'm
heading to the East Coast tomorrow to help the Red Cross with relief efforts
following Superstorm Sandy.
November 3
Travel Day
Steve headed to the car after depositing me and my bags on the sidewalk at the airport, then he turned back and said: "Honey, I'm really proud of you!" It made the loneliness of that moment very satisfying.
November
4
I
arrived late last night in West Virginia. I will get my assignment today to
help the Red Cross relief effort.
I will be working
out of a Southern Baptist kitchen delivering meals to folks up in the WV mtns
who have been cut off by snow and dealing with power outages.
Working
into the night. The need is great here. We are just getting into a couple of
isolated counties with relief, food and water.These folks are
so appreciative, it is a joy. More snow is on the way...
November
5
The
Baptists cook great meals from their mobile kitchen. A lady came in this
morning and asked if we could bring meals to her apt complex. They have been
w/out power since Sandy. Yes.... She melted and started crying. I love this
job!
Our stats for the day. We fed 1845 meals this morning and will
go out again with 1695 dinners for delivery to cold and hungry people in the
mountains of W Virginia.
November 6
Yikes,
it's about 25 degrees out there.... Brrrr! Keeping a close eye on the weather.
Snow could really slow down our food routes.
Our
team were all a little homesick tonight and ended up passing our phones around
over dinner to show off pictures of our loved ones back home, both the two and
the four legged kind. I love and miss you Steven Dalton Stroop, Sophie B, Tessa
Sue, Jena and BJ!
November
7
Day 5 of operation at Kitchen 2 in West Virginia:
The
Red Cross has been working closely with the National Guard to get food into
remote areas hit hard by winds and heavy snow from Hurricane Sandy in remote
regions in the mountains of Northeastern West Virginia. Today we are sending
two Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles and a box truck with MRE's and water
to Kingwood, WV to be air dropped by military helicopters into remote
communities in great need of relief.
I'm
working with some really nice people and although tensions can build because of
the long hours we are working and the stresses of the situation, folks give a
lot of allowance for each other and settle into their niche/skill set. Debby,
our manager sized people up very quickly and plugged roles just right as well
as giving some flexibility for interest and fulfillment.
I am her asst, make or
handle a lot of calls for her, keep a lot of notes, run some spreadsheets, keep
track of our staff of 45 crew, check them in and out with sign in sheets, who
is where, everyone stays accounted for, but I also make one feeding run a day
across town to low income apts that were 8 days without power, so I get some
hands on relief work. It can be a very chaotic environment but it works, we're
getting the job done. We're bringing food and relief supplies to five counties
in Northeastern West Virginia. We are working twelve hour days and have started
rotating a much deserved day off for staff and ERV crews. The word getting
chatted about, HQ may start re-deploying some of our crews further North as
this area gets back their power and consolidate Red Cross relief to some of the
hardest hit areas from Sandy. The enormity and sheer geographic size of this
event is mind boggling. I will stick with our site mgr till we close "WV
Kitchen 2" or I'm rotated out and sent back home.
Hanging
out for dinner with my Red Cross co-workers after a long day’s work.
November
8
I
got a much better night's sleep last night. It must have been your prayers and
blowing off steam at dinner with my co-workers. I haven't laughed that hard in
a long time. I was beginning to think I had missed my calling as a comedian
when I realized, oh yeah, it is Day Five of a disaster deployment and everyone
is a little punchy. We weren't the group who kept going late at night
though.... Mmmmm, we'll see who is bleary eyed at staff mtg this morning! Good
thing I brought ear plugs.
November
9
Day
7 of operation at Kitchen 2 in West Virginia:
Thanks for the prayers for strength. The need is great here in WV tho much
of the news is focused on NJ and NY. It is very rural here, our drivers are
covering 6 counties with strategic food drops, some with the assistance of the
Natl Guard because of the terrain and heavy snow and downed power lines.
Pockets are w/out power which is what we are prioritizing because there is a
lot of poverty and need for food, where do you start.... Folks are very appreciative and often do random acts of
kindness for us. The other day my co-worker and I stopped in a gas n go station
and bought a couple of sandwiches to go. A lady in line stepped up and bought
them for us just to show her appreciation. Warm hugs all around!
There
was a health inspector that stopped by yesterday although he said he wasn't in
an official capacity, he was just curious how our field kitchen operation
worked. The big trailer industrial kitchen is run by the Southern Baptist
disaster response org, the Red Cross just is partnering with them in logistics
and distribution. Their best meal was Monday evening's chicken n dumplings. The
Salisbury steak was good too. Yesterday evening was some kind of dry pressed
and breaded chicken patty with very watery and bland instant potatoes.
November
11
Day 9:
Looks like our kitchen will be winding down the first of the week and staff
beginning to be deployed further north where the need is still great. The
difficult decision point here is when power gets restored because there is so much
poverty here in the mountains of WV that we could have a feeding program here
for months.
I've become our site manager's right hand so I will stick with her
till we turn off the lights at this site. Debby is a great at delegating, hands me
the phone and says call so and so and check on such and such or look up this or
that, so although I have gone out on a couple of feeding runs, I have been in
the office most of the days we have been here.Not
as glamorous but still important work and Debby has been great to work with.
Most managers in the field lose their cool at some point because of the
tremendous pressures but she has been calm cool and collected and even
inspirational to all of us in the important work we have been doing.
We are all
very tired at this point of the game. We've been working twelve hour days full
of high pressure, juggling and multi-tasking. I found myself yesterday
struggling for a word and sometimes substituting the wrong one, like towel when
I meant to say blanket. Oh, I'm going to give a little blurb in church service
this morning where we have had the site of our kitchen operation, "On behalf
of the American Red Cross we want to thank you for your wonderful hospitality......"
November
11
I
shared a thank you to the church for hosting our mobile kitchen site for our
disaster relief work.
November
12
Day
10: We are significantly downsizing our operation up here in the foothills of
the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia. The dear folks here were hit pretty
hard with Sandy's high winds and heavy snow which caused widespread power
outages. The need for the Red Cross was more short-term through the cold spell until folks could
get power back but their infrastructure was not so heavily damaged as it has
been further north in NJ and NY. So we will say a fond farewell to about 30 Red
Cross volunteers today and send them back down to Charleston, WV where they
will be re-assigned. I am staying on here with a skeleton crew if 3 admin and 2
Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs), a total of 7 staff. It's going to be sad.
We have all bonded and worked very well together as a team as well as grown
fond of the local people we have had the privilege of helping in their time of
need.
November
13
We're
caravaning down to Charleston today. We closed our kitchen yesterday. In ten days of operation, Kitchen 2 West Virginia served 23,264 meals, 28,569 snacks and water. At our height of operation, we had 47 American Red Cross volunteers and 12 Emergency Response Vehicles working in partnership with the Virginia Southern Baptist mobile kitchen. I am way proud to have been apart of this team and this very successful operation!
American
Red Cross headquarters for West Virginia
They may
need some of us to caravan some of our Emergency vehicles up to New York. It would
be a 10 hour drive, then I'd fly home from New York in a few days’ time. It's
fluid, I'll know more soon. I hope I get
a night's rest before heading to NY.
November 13 afternoon
I'm going home tomorrow!!!
