Disaster response is a pretty unique area of work. This is something I knew, and thought I was prepared for, when I interviewed for the AmeriCorps NPRC program last summer. The balance between desk work and field work is something I was excited for, and is now one of my favorite things about this job. Since starting in August I’ve heard some bizarre stories both in the office and out on response. Some days, like a couple I had last week, really make you smile and revel in the oddity of this line of work. Luckily I can share some of the crazy experiences with my counterpart in preparedness. Even though we work in different functions, we can occasionally overlap our schedules like we did riding along on the Disaster Action Team a few Mondays ago.

 

The weather in St. Louis should have been our first clue that it would be an interesting day. Temperatures on Saturday and Sunday had hit the upper 50s, but we awoke Monday morning to 1.5” of snow on the ground and more coming down heavy. We weren’t two hours into our shift when we heard information on a residential house fire come across the scanner. This was quickly scaled up to a 2 alarm situation so we hit the road, and the Disaster Action Team was officially in service. Arriving on scene we saw that multiple fire crews were working diligently to put out areas that were still smoldering. After meeting with the incident commander and the affected families we decided the only action that could be taken right then was to canteen the emergency responders and wait for everything to calm down.

 

Three hours, 62 people canteened, and several inches of snow later, we explained the services available to fire clients and began to pack up the truck. Of course this shift couldn’t end without another hurdle being thrown at us and this came in the form of a tire blowout on the interstate 15 miles away from the office. Well we made it safely to the side and put in a call to fix the tire. Not before too long one of our Disaster Specialists came to the rescue and brought us back to the office just in time to complete the day’s paperwork and greet the evening team. It had been a long, cold 8 hours but at least we were able to represent the Red Cross, serve some of our neighbors in need, and certainly take away an interesting story.

 

Chapter two of this weird week did not start ‘bright and early’ so much as it started ‘still dark’ and early. The Red Cross responds to disasters large or small at all hours of the day, every day. This is something I learned quickly when I first signed up to be on call for the midnight-8am shift. I’ve served on many after-midnight response teams now, but that doesn’t make it any easier to get moving when that initial call comes through. After a moment or two of grogginess and a great deal of patience from our Duty Officer it clicked for me that we had a fire and it was time to respond. I met my DAT partner at the office a little after 5am and we headed to the scene with only the address and vague details that it was a big fire.

 

Big it was with several cases to open and many firemen to canteen. Not that there is ever a favorable season or good time for a fire, but I’ve found people are especially shaken when they are woken abruptly by a fire. Particularly the time and severity of this fire gave us many clients that needed comforting. First thing first, we passed out dozens of blankets and some socks to clients who had evacuated the apartment building in only their pajamas (there was still evidence of Monday’s freak snow lingering on the ground). We next set about canteening the clients, as well as the emergency responders scattered throughout the scene. Both being trained in casework, my partner and I were able to each take half the affected families and begin opening cases to provide emergency food and clothing. Luckily the apartment manager had arrived and was a great help sheltering the residents. As the sun came up families seemed to calm down and started to interact with one another. Some had lived there for years and some only a couple months. Regardless they patiently waited for us to work from one family to the next, and each was very grateful for our comfort and assistance.

 

Spending five and half hours on a multi-unit fire scene is not how I would like to start every Wednesday, but it was a hands-on learning experience for me and great example of our mission of service for both the Red Cross and AmeriCorps.

 

 

 

Katie