Red Cross Gustav

AWE

I am filled with awe about how God can use two weeks. In only two weeks, God can teach us and work through us in ways so remarkable I can not begin to wrap my head around it. Three years ago, in a two-week trip to Venezuela, God transformed all my thought paradigms so radically that my mind was cast into a hurricane for months. But I came out of it victorious. That two weeks taught me a lifetime of lessons – primarily internal. This two weeks working Red Cross Gustav also taught me a lifetime of lessons – primarily external. It was as if I had the opportunity to apply the internal lessons from the first Two Weeks in the Twilight Zone to the second Two Weeks in the Twilight Zone.

BACKGROUND

For those new to my story: in place of a New Year’s Resolution for 2005, I decided to pray to God every single day in ‘05 for a “quiet and gentle spirit.” God knew that in order to grant this prayer to me, He had to deal with two things: (1) my anxiety and (2) my nature in conflict with my environment. The second He dealt with by recreating my childhood from its earliest years, and the first He confronted by permitting me to face terror. God knew that if I could be victorious over terror, I could certainly declare it over everyday anxiety. God’s work these areas culminated with my spirit’s response to Hurricane Katrina: knowing it, in spite of the absence of any news in my proximity.

God also gave Chris a deep heart for Katrina victims, which, as most of you know, led to our work with Katrina evacuees in Baton Rouge last year. We worked alongside two totally amazing couples, Randy & Maya Knighten and Larry & Krista Lain. With Katrina more than a year in the past, I teasingly called us “tenth responders.” Longing to be more of a “first-responder,” I took classes with the Red Cross in Baton Rouge and then was badged for disaster relief back at home. Gustav was my first opportunity to deploy to a national disaster, called a “DR” in Red Cross lingo. As a newbie, I was placed at the bottom of the totem pole, an “SA” (Service Associate), but ended up with a surprising degree of authority and the opportunity to foil some politics that had been holding people back for Recovering Gustav, in spite of Desperate Ike . . .

REMARKABLE POSITIONING

When the Red Cross flew me to Dallas for Gustav, I never expected where they would send me once I arrived: Baton Rouge. I was “boomeranged” back to the very city that had trained me. Nor would I have anticipated the remarkable series of events that brought me there. It began when I joined up with two great volunteers, Wayne & Casey, with whom I drove from Dallas to Baton Rouge. RC Dallas told us to drive all the way to BR; that hotels were booked the entire way (meaning the two cities they checked, Shreveport & Alexandria); that we needed to return our rental car in BR; and that we would then need to rent a new car once we arrived, under a local (cheaper) contract (paid by RC Louisiana instead of RC Texas). After doing that, we were to head to BR headquarters for our assignment.

Here’s what really happened: we left Dallas at 2 pm, as one of the last of 8 vehicles and 40 people sent from Dallas to BR. In good traffic and non-disaster conditions, this would have put us in BR around 10 pm. But with a flow of people returning and trees and power lines down, we never could have made it that early. And if we had made it that night at all, we would have joined a number of other RC workers who were sleeping in vans, “ERVs” (“Emergency Response Vehicles” – those ambulance-like vehicles), and outside, as staff shelters were absolutely packed.

Getting hungry, we agreed to find a place to eat, but town after town had nothing and we had already passed Shreveport. I knew of a town coming up that would have something: Natchitoches. That I could even pronounce the name of this city gave me a degree of credibility, so Natchitoches it was. We arrived there sometime after 7 pm and, tired, decided to see if this “hotels booked the entire way” was really true. With “no vacancy” at place after place, it sure seemed to be, but we kept looking and found a run-down motel with one room left. It had a king-size bed, so Casey & I took it and Wayne was given an air mattress (and no pump, so he bought one himself). Thank You, Lord, for our sleep!

The next morning, we got up early to make it the rest of the way. I called Randy along the way with the news that I was headed his way, and he informed me that power was out throughout the city and surrounding region. Just in time, that prompted Wayne to realize that we had better gas up the vehicle, as gas stations would be all out of gas. He was right. We fueled up and – no joke – within a mile, the gas stations we saw were lined up with cars for great distances, and within a few miles, they were completely out of gas. Thank You, Lord, for our gas!

We had a new problem, though: our turn signals, power-operated windows (whatever was wrong with rolling them down, anyway?) and everything requiring electric power – most importantly, our air conditioning – was no longer working. After about a half-hour of hot, humid misery, I asked if we could stop to open the doors for some fresh air. “Please!” said Casey. When we did, Casey found a switch to get everything working again. Thank you, Lord, for our cool air!

The closer we came to Baton Rouge, the more we saw that this city had been far more affected by Gustav than we had anticipated. Power lines, trees and debris were strewn everywhere; houses were knocked out; and no place without the blessing of a generator had power. Traffic was congested as many were returning and street lights were out, requiring every car to make a complete stop. Gustav hit in such a way that BR was even more hard-hit than New Orleans. We thought we’d be working with evacuees, but, truly, we were working with locals.

Seeing what I saw, I said to Wayne and Casey, “We can’t rent a car in Baton Rouge! What was Dallas thinking?!” We all agreed to head straight to BR headquarters, where we reported what RC Dallas had told us to do. With head shaking, they chuckled and said there were no cars to rent in BR! They told us to go to Avis and re-rent our own vehicle under a new contract to be paid by RC Louisiana. Success. Thank you, Lord, for our vehicle!

Meanwhile, we checked in with lodging, which told us that RC National (in DC) had not informed them that our group of 40 was coming. “There was no room at the inn,” shall we say. I called Randy, who happens to own that small apartment complex above the Center. Yes, he had one open – Larry & Krista’s! I and my friends got to stay in Larry & Krista’s former two-bedroom apartment!! THANK YOU, LORD, FOR OUR FRIENDS’ APARTMENT!!

Other amazing events took place that shifted me from Sheltering into Feeding, where I needed to be in order to stay in the apartment, and brought us Dave, a fourth member of our little apartment/vehicle group. Had he not had a run-in with one of RC’s most belligerent figures at BR headquarters, he never would have met us, joined us, or had our apartment to stay in. Thank You, Lord, for difficult people that move us to better places!

So this very long post is the beginning of my story with RC Gustav. More about what we did in the next post . . .