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September 10, 2005 ~ Seattle Times News Article: Evacuees Praise Red Cross Excerpt: "Now FEMA, that's a different story," Burkhamer said. "They haven't
done jack squat. I contacted them by phone and they said they would be
back to me in two weeks. There is no one around here to see from FEMA.
To get the Red Cross hotel coverage, I didn't have to do anything."
If
you've been reading the news lately, you'll also have see articles that
reveal that the Red Cross was ready to help immediately and was
prevented from doing so by FEMA. They've been around since before
I was born, and they only get better at what they do. They help.
September 4, 2005 ~ Going about our normal lives seems
weird right now. We get out of bed, we have breakfast, we do all the
normal things. Although everything is normal, it just doesn't feel right. Something is very wrong in America right now.
Over on the other coast, nothing at all
is normal. Over there, people who, a week ago, were living lives much
like ours...
...are dead,
...are dying,
...are without clean water,
...are without food,
...are homeless.
On Tuesday, I attended training at our local Red Cross. I was impressed by the bits and pieces I heard
during the class regarding their preparations to go help victims of
Katrina. They weren't waiting to be asked, or depending on the
government to offer financial incentives. They'd heard the same news
that we all had prior to the storm and begun making preparations to
go help.
One of the trainees was, even before
the levees broke, intending to fly out to New Orleans to help set up
and operate a shelter. There was an air of calm acceptance that
'their' problems were the problems of people living across the
country. Hurricanes always leave people in need of help, the
attitude seemed to say, and we are able to provide help. The ability
to help translated immediately into the intent to help. It's what
the Red Cross does.
When the news came that the levees had
gone down, the facility seemed to go into high gear. They weren't
waiting for the governor to declare a state of emergency, or the
president to say the situation had turned critical. They heard the
news and increased the level of their intended response.
In the week since then, I haven't heard
a lot about the ordinary citizens who are members of the Red Cross
who went rushing off to help the folks back east. I haven't
heard--amongst all the news of the looters, the government inaction,
the local lack of planning, the general horror of it all--about the
people who did things in the way we, as Americans living in America,
expect things to be done. They saw that neighbors needed help and
they went to help.
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