One week down

We've been on the job for a week now. Though we're not working that long a day anymore, we fell asleep around 8:00 last night. We're not used to a working day schedule, and we're getting worn down pretty well by the end of the day. We're not doing hard physical work, but we are keeping busy every day. Mahlon is working in staffing (HR), doing data entry to a database, and reconciling the database against the piles of paperwork that are mounting as volunteers come and go. Part of the function of the database is to provide HR information to the other departments, and part is to manage the cost accounting for staff costs, which is primarily expense funds and hotel rooms. After the disaster is over, the chapters and Red Cross National will use the info to manage their disaster response staff and plan appropriate training courses.

Consuelo is taking care of all the expense money that the volunteers are getting. All of the national volunteers like me get Red Cross debit card with a starting balance that corresponds to their daily allowance for food and incidentals, usually supplied by their chapter before they leave home. But some people, like Consuelo and I, are never at their chapter (ours is Elkhart, IN), so she supplies them with cards. Local Indiana volunteers who are not part of the national response system are getting a smaller stipend, mostly to cover the cost of fuel. They've been doing a lot driving in this disaster, because the flooding covered a fairly wide area, and because many of the hotels in the affected areas were damages by the floods, and they are travelling back and forth to Indianapolis.

We've drastically reduced the request for volunteers to fly in. Some more may come in to replace people who go home. We're beginning to process more paperwork for people leaving, which will provide the checks and balances on the system for the people and resources spent during the disaster, at least from an HR perspective.

Still don't know when we'll go home. Staffing is one of the first to arrive and last to leave, so we may be here until July.

The Red Cross's mission is immediate response to alleviate loss of life and suffering. The shelters and feeding are the primary elements of that first response. Those functions are beginning to wind down here, the 3 open shelters reported a population of around 80 people yesterday, down from around 500 initially. We've also released some of our feeding trucks to head west to the Iowa and the just started Illinois DR (declared disaster area). We have two kitchens open, but one will probably close this week. Meanwhile, we're still ramping up on the personell side. ARC provides some emergency cash for people in affected areas, and counsels people to help them reach other resources, like FEMA, and with mental health issues. That will go on for a couple weeks yet, I expect.

The Red Cross is designed to be first response, and FEMA's job is to pick up the ball for the next leg. As the victims of the floods go home, or determine that thay can't, FEMA will take them the next way, so our job will be done.

All that water from Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois is making its way into the Mississippi. They're expecting record flood levels, and it's all working its way down, due to hit E. St. Louis today. Several Mississippi levees have broken or been topped, and every time one breaks, it relieves a little of the pressure on the rolling flood waters. But within a few hours, it resumes its climb toward the peak. Most of the areas flooded by the broken levees so far are farm land areas, and a few small towns. East St. Louis is a major city, with a population of 155000 or so, and if the levees go there, we'll start seeing problems on the same order of magnitude as Katrina in New Orleans.

Here in Indiana, they suffered 3 major calamities within the last 2-1/2 weeks. Tornadoes in late May, followed by record rainfalls (10-12" in about 5 hours) on 6/8 and more heavy rain last Saturday night. The town of Franklin, which had begun to clean up from the first flood, having cleared away debris into huge piles to be hauled off, found that junk all floating through town again on Saturday night in the second flood. As you can imagine, some folks are pretty depressed. Many lived in areas that were not in any known flood plain, and so did not have flood insurance. But they got flooded nonetheless. My heart goes out to them. Consuelo and I are doing a little bit here to help.

I'm sure you've seen the appeals to help the Red Cross replenish their disaster relief funds. If you can help with that, please call 1-800-HELPNOW or go to http://www.redcross.org and make a donation.

And a few people have wanted to get to my log of our volunteering activities in after Katrina in Louisiana. Tose pages can be found here.