In the midst of sorrow and joy

[zyzyly]

It has been a week since I left home to come here, and have been working in the shelter for six days. It has been nothing like what I expected, and indeed, nothing like most anyone expected. Most of the Red Cross workers agree on one thing--this is a disaster unlike any other.

In a normal disaster, we would have set up a table and provide first aid to the clients, and referred them out to community resources for any other care they needed. We would follow protocols that told us what to do. One of the first things we did in this disaster was throw the protocols book out the window.

Our shelter has about 600 people, all from the New Orleans area. They have lost everything except what they were able to take with them. All the things we take for granted are now completely out of reach to these people. Need to see a doctor to get a prescription refill? Hard to do when the doctor has evacuated to Houston, his clinic is a pile of two-by-fours, and the pharmacy is under 12 feet of water.

This is one of the needs we try and meet. My parter Robin, a nurse from Colorado, arrived here the day after the storm and set up a clinic with not much more than a bag of bandages and a tube of antibiotic ointment, met by two busloads of evacuees with special medical needs. By the time I arrived, she had a fully functioning clinic in place, with a crude pharmacy and a collection of volunteer doctors from various places, treating over 40 patients a day.

I have to go--more later.

Comments

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

good on you, Mike. we're all praying
for you.~paul

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Please keep updating us whenever you can!

You're in our prayers as well.

...

[felixbunay.livejournal.com]

Thanks for improvising...it's a lost art.

Great chapter for the book. Sorry there won't be any pictures.

[fried-pearl.livejournal.com]

This almost seems to be a practice run for some horrific end of the world scenario. Thank you for being there.

[rawmr.livejournal.com]

I hope you brought your camera. It would be interesting to see what you took.

[brendamom.livejournal.com]

Yes, write more. I want to see what you see unfiltered by media.

[bravencrazy.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. I want to hear what's really going on down there, not what reporters claim is going on.

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

hey, do your clients need plus-sized clothes? I suspected that would be a problem, and now I read that it is. Give me an address, and I can ship you rather a lot of them (I recently lost about 100 lbs). They're sturdy and easy to care for - clothing is not an area of my life I want to invest a lot of time and effort into...

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

I can help with that also if you need it.

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing what some of us cannot. My prayers go out daily.

[errantpenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the dispatch, Mike. I've been thinking about you and wondering how you're doing. I imagine you giving so much of yourself that you'll need to sleep for weeks when you get back. I hope your current bed-on-the-floor isn't too uncomfortable.
God bless you for what you're doing.

[carocrow.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear from you. Again, if you need a massage, contact Robin; she is involved with a volunteer group of MTs and is also in touch with the MERT people.

Power to the people.

[deeder55.livejournal.com]

Godspeed Mike.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

:cough: May I steal this icon?

[deeder55.livejournal.com]

Certainly! It's a picture of a button, anyway.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

thankee!

Bravo

[mizannie.livejournal.com]

I am so glad I read this post. The way you
describe things, though they are horrible,
doesn't mean they are hopeless as long as
people like you, your friend and the doctors
are in the world.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you, Mike, for writing this - especially today.

[lavidamd.livejournal.com]

I keep re-reading that intro.... "In a normal disaster." There is a book title in there somewhere. Maybe it could be "Not A Normal Disaster: The Story of the Red Cross and Hurricane Katrina."

[detroitfather.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the update.