On Sunday, September 14, I woke up to 18 inches of water in my first floor apartment. There was no time for me to grab much – just a few clothes and a pair of shoes. My family is all out-of-town, but luckily a co-worker offered me a place to stay until my daughter arrived late that night.

I have been a volunteer for the St. Louis Area Chapter’s Disaster Action Team (DAT) for several months now. You can usually find me on the Wednesday or Saturday night shift working from 4:00 to midnight. Often the night crew will respond to at least one fire, but sometimes there are none. No matter what, the DAT members make sure we have our trucks – and ourselves – prepared to respond at a moment’s notice.

Hello all, I have a few minutes to give you an update.  The shelter I was working in is now closed because all sheltering needs have been met in that particular area. Now I am supervising the Back Data Entry Unit at Baton Rouge Headquarters. I have really enjoyed this job. It works like this: caseworkers are now meeting with families on an individual basis to assess their needs following the hurricane.

My wife Sheila and I have been in Bay Town, Texas, not far from Galveston, for a week now. I can easily say that this assignment is the most challenging that I have experienced as a Red Cross volunteer. The community still has no electricity or running water. Gas lines continue to be 3-5 miles long. The Red Cross is going to be here for a long time to come. We're needed here and I hope that the people who live in these communities aren't forgotten.

It's about 9:00 a.m. and I am getting ready to crawl into my bed to grab a few hours of sleep. Since last Sunday, I have been working the overnight shift from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. at the Red Cross emergency shelter in University City. While our guests are sleeping, I am awake, regularly checking on them to make sure they are okay, making coffee and snacks in case someone needs a late night snack, and I'm around in case one of our guests needs someone to talk with.

Whew--this is a big relief effort--all I can say is that Red Cross will be here for a long time. It's day eight for me at the Joint Field Office (JFO) here in Austin, Texas--I'm not sure when I'm coming home to St. Louis (don't say that to my 6-year-old :). I'm serving as the National Public Information Officer (PIO) at the JFO. The JFO is set-up by FEMA to bring all leadership of the fifteen relief arms of FEMA together in one location--while Red Cross is a charity, not a government agency, in the spirit of partnership the Red Cross is invited to be here too. My job is to coordinate information between FEMA and Red Cross.

My damage assessment partner and I are traveling through Texas lowlands right now and we just passed an incredibly flooded section of land. If we got out of the car and walked down into the field, the water would be well above our heads! Right now we are traveling from Houston, Texas, to the Orange County, Texas, Red Cross Chapter where we will receive our next assignment. Since we are only a few minutes away, I have to make this quick.

I’m back at the shelter in University City today. Last night, the Red Cross provided 15 people with a safe place to stay. My wife, Lois, was here serving meals and snacks, and offering warm blankets and comfort kits. When I arrived this morning at 8 a.m., most of the guests had left for work or were on their way to check their flood-damaged homes. The water came so fast and swift that people in its path had no time to prepare. Now, the waters have mostly receded and people are going back to clean up.

I arrived at the University City Red Cross shelter this morning at 8. I’m helping with the daily operations and making sure the guests’ needs are met. It’s pretty slow right now. The five guests we had last night returned to their homes to assess the damage. But we’re still open, ready to help people in need.

My wife Lois and I are currently volunteering at the Red Cross shelter in University City. We are tasked with managing the shelter and making sure all the guests are well taken care of. Yesterday’s storm was very powerful and hundreds of homes were affected across the area. We weren’t sure how many people would show up at the shelter so we were prepared with dozens of cots, comfort kits, meals and snacks. There are several other volunteers and staff on-hand to make sure everything goes smoothly.
 

Becky White and I are currently at the staff shelter in Baton Rouge, resting up and waiting on Hurricane Ike to pass. We woke up about 5:30 a.m. this morning to the sounds of the shelter manager saying we were under a tornado warning. At about 9:00 a.m. I walked over to the coffee shop to grab a cup of coffee.

 

The last week has been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to write. Let me fill you in on my experiences responding to Hurricane Gustav. One week ago, I entered a vacant Wal-Mart building in Baton Rouge, LA, to find it filled with Red Cross staff and volunteers.

While working the overnight shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a Red Cross shelter just outside of Baton Rouge, LA, I looked around at the about 200 people sleeping—they were 200 reasons I was in Louisiana helping after Hurricane Gustav left hundreds of thousands without power.

Two days ago, my wife and I were two of the several hundred volunteers assigned to help the ongoing preparations for Hurricane Ike’s expected landfall in Texas this weekend. We were originally deployed to Orlando, FL, but when Ike changed paths, we did too.

My husband Jim and I are volunteers with the St. Louis Area Chapter. We were activated for Red Cross disaster relief assignment on Saturday. We were assigned to Florida and arrived in Orlando late Saturday night ready to help with any and all Red Cross sheltering.

“I’m on week two here in Baton Rouge and I think it’s about to get worse. In addition to helping with the emergency needs of thousands of families impacted by Gustav, we’re now anticipating another mass evacuation because Ike looks like it’s heading right toward us. T

Who can forget the images from Hurricane Katrina - the people stranded on their roofs, the murky water submerging miles of homes, the helplessness of the people at the Superdome. Those images inspired me to get involved. 

Three days before Hurricane Gustav made landfall, I boarded a plane in St. Louis and headed for my sixth disaster assignment since becoming a Red Cross volunteer one year ago. I deployed to Covington, LA, which is close to New Orleans. I waited out the storm with 125 other Red Cross workers as Gustav passed over the Gulf Coast region. We were without electricity for two days in the staff shelter. Of course, there were nearly one million others in the region without electricity, too.