Word Processing

First of all, I felt weird about broadcasting that I planned to go volunteer. In no way did I want to look like a better person because I want to help. Mostly, I knew that unless I told someone, I would not go. Putting it out there was my point of no return.

This post has no pictures for a reason. Seeing pictures and being there are two very different things. This is mostly for me to process what I did and what I saw there. I've been home only long enough to shower, and it will be rolling through my mind for a long time.

The church I have been attending is hosting the Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief team. It was good to be able to go with an organization that has training, experience, and equipment. All food, water, and work gloves were provided for any who came to help. I had the best banana of my life complements of the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army served a lot of hot dogs today!

As you drive into town you see telephone poles snapped in half; mangled cars lined up in a field for insurance appraisals; highway patrol asking every vehicle why they are there. Any homes still standing have tarps over holes in the roof and boarded up windows. Trees are ghostly, full of clothes and carpet, bark missing. I saw one tree snapped over at the base with a long piece of metal that had somehow wedged itself into the jagged trunk of the broken end.

The sounds put you in another place as well. You occasionally hear police sirens, beeping of equipment as it backs up, chainsaws, objects falling as buildings are demolished and trees are cut down.

Pretty much everything is debris. Shingles, pieces of wood, glass, insulation. You can pick up some big chunks, but a lot of it has to be scooped. There are also a lot of demo-type jobs. Taking down pieces of wall or cutting limbs from trees. Another bonus to being with an organization is that they have seen a lot of this before and are looking out for our safety.

The debris was to be sorted into five piles: "construction" materials, household items, metal, appliances, and hazardous chemicals. We found several photos, important papers, etc. throughout the day and set them aside for the homeowner to go through. The homeowner was so grateful to receive a dirt smudged picture I found of his daughter.

It feels weird calling someone the "homeowner" when you are standing next to what little is left of their "home."

The family we helped has a young girl and a baby. It was weird to see a can of cherry pie filling among many other things that had flown into the little girl's room. The father had an amazing record collection. I would say at least 100 of them, probably more. When an item was questioned about whether or not it was salvageable it was saved. You have no way of knowing if it had any sort of sentimental attachment. The wife's wedding dress was found. Not in good shape, but she could maybe get it cleaned or keep a piece of it. We found lots of DVDs, baby toys, kitchen utensils, clothing, books. I have heard it said before, and it was definitely true today that you have to shut off your mind.

I was a part of a team of 15-20 people. We worked all day at one house. I did a lot of raking debris and scooping it up to toss into piles. The goal is to clear everything away from the foundation. There is a giant pile of debris outside of town. I assume most of the piles we made are destined for places such as that. It was hard for me to put so much effort into making piles when it will need to happen again when the piles are moved. Hopefully that happens with some big equipment.

I'll probably think of much more to say later. We made progress, but there is so for to go yet on this one house. There were over 250 homes destroyed by the storm. There were a lot of volunteers there today, probably thousands. I heard that one of the several NFL teams with an Applington-Parkersburg graduate is coming to help. Today was a good turn out since it is a Saturday and near perfect weather. Will there still be people to help after the excitement goes away?