Putting good will to action (Lesson 1)

One of our case managers was quite upset yesterday with a call we received of a mother separated from her teen son who was traumatized by the death of his best friend (sucked into a manhole while they were walking together through water) and is now in the Houston Astrodome alone.We are flying him here to the Manhattan area to be reunited with his mom. Turn the channel on your TV to find the next tragic tale of survival.

I have learned many lessons in my first week. First, the initial emergence of good will exceeds the capacity of any established framework to put it into action.

We have so many calls from people wanting to do something. We turn people away from the full-day training. Our young volunteer supervisor (one of three paid staff) is COMPLETELY overwhelmed by the magnitude of the surge of good will from the community. People call to offer space in their homes or rental property that is not occupied. They are referred to the Salvation Army (the agency in charge of housing). For a couple of days we didn't have enough phone lines or office space to take emotionally-charged calls. So here we are, with the tremendous resource of good people behind us but not the trained personnel to bring them all together. People call, leave a number and many never hear from us again. Why? Because those of us who can respond did not have the time. We are maxed out in our office with people rushing around trying to get out of each other's way, trying to find space to have a private conversation, to cry with the caller if necessary (let's face it, you can't be stoic all the time), and keep reminding ourselves to drink water to avoid dehydration. Did it have to be this way. Logically, no. But in reality, given the historic nature of what we face, I don't see how it could be different.

It's calming down now. There's more order based on accrued experience. We have more case managers in place. The initial surge of those arriving in vehicles has already occurred and the calls and visits from survivors have declined some. We don't really know at this moment, how many are being airlifted to Kansas. We should have a much clearer idea of what we face by early next week.

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