Forgive me for missing a week of writing to you, but for those that know me well, you can hardly blame me. As an EMT and a coordinator with my Township’s Office of Emergency Management, last weekend's little weather event left little time to share my thoughts. Saturday started out with an early morning meeting at the volunteer first aid squad, and by the time the last minute planning was done and the overall response was over, it was late Sunday night before I could close my eyes.
Even then, being the “Servpro Guy” for much of Mercer, Middlesex, and Monmouth Counties has kept me either on the road or at my computer for nearly 16 hours a day since, and while I’m one of those who wake up every day hoping to save the world, the last 8 days has left me totally spent.
While Irene came in with much fanfare and warning, the winds were not what we had expected. The rainfall it produced however, especially after two unusually wet weeks, left many in our communities devastated with its accumulation. In a single night, nearly one million households in New Jersey were left in some way damaged by this unwanted end of August guest.
Flooded basements seemed to be the norm. Many, whose homes were built on a slab of concrete, lost kitchens, dining rooms, play rooms, and pianos which to those who lost a lifetime of memories stored in their besieged basements, would gladly have trades places.
As often happens in circumstances of sudden tragedy, people and personalities change to deal with the moment at hand. In some, a calming sense of leadership can add comfort to the kayos, in others, a desire for self preservation may lead folks to ignore obvious needs around them, even when a helping hand to someone else, will lead to a more secure station for their own situation.
Maybe because we are Americans, charity and a spirit of community rests within us. After generations of surviving war and assassinations, earthquakes and floods, tornados and terrorist attacks, Americans seem to have an innate ability to pull together as a family when disaster strikes. Some amongst us however, are due honorable mention…
With the storm’s intensity growing, and the worst of it only hours away, his supply of donuts, bagels, and coffee was enough to keep the shop open just a little bit more. I stopped in for a caffeine fix before what I knew would be a long night and mentioned that the Township was setting up a shelter for those likely to be evacuated. We had a power generator to keep the refrigeration going, but no ice for the evacuees or volunteers, could he help. Without a word, his Manager came out with 50 pounds of ice from the back and threw a couple of dozen donuts on top for good measure. Four hours later, as the rain was falling in sheets, he called to tell me that he had stayed in the store to keep bagging ice and wondered if the Police, Fire, and EMS volunteers would like all of the donuts and bagels left in the store. No charge.
She and her husband own a small pizzeria not far from the donut shop. The Police and ambulance crews make it a regular stop many evenings while working the second shift. Without having to be asked, an account was set up that night for each department so the Responders would not have to fumble through their gear for some cash. They would stay open as long as the plate glass held out against the wind, and acted as a shelter for those of us in uniform that were on alert that night. For those that could not make it out of their buildings, they delivered! By night’s end we were told that they finally had to close because they ran out of food! Not a single First Responder was charged more than five dollars the whole day.
The call came in around 2 A.M. A car had been seen carried away by raging flood water, into a stream, with the two occupants still inside. The roads were quickly becoming impassable even to emergency vehicles, but the crew responded none the less. An out of work professional, a Mother of three, a Customer Service Vice President, and an off duty hotel employee all got in gear and raced to the last spot the vehicle was seen. For 30 minutes, some of that time spent in thigh deep water, these folks flooded the stream bed with light as another group of volunteers tried to make their way to the bottom. The vehicle occupants were ultimately found safe, but neither for this, nor the 20 other calls responded to that day were any of the above mentioned patriots paid a nickel.
In a town just west of mine, neighborhoods making up the majority of that little enclave were virtually wiped out, first from the unstoppable ground water, and then by the devastation that hits when an entire municipality’s sump pumps don’t work for days. Not since a certain September, 10 years ago, have I seen so many people pull together to help their neighbors and friends. A local Elks Club was secured as a staging site and the word went out…water, canned foods, toiletries, clothing, spare furniture, and cleaning supplies started pouring in. A Facebook page was set up for communication and it became an instant hit. Retailers got involved, and the next thing you know, all of people manning the emergency headquarters were enjoying as much pizza, soda, and coffee they could handle. When I last checked in to the page, almost a dozen hair stylists donated their services for a day so that all of the kids affected by the tragedy would head off to school tomorrow with a fresh cut, and their heads held high. The fellow that coordinated this probably gets my vote for Patriot of the year for it seems that no matter what time of the day or night one logs onto the help site, he is there to direct the victims, and offer a shoulder to lean on.
Having seen so much of the devastation Irene brought to our community first hand, I believe that it will be many weeks if not months before a large number of us are back to what we considered normal before the storm. That said, there seems to be a certain rainbow that has followed the devastation in the genuine concern and compassion shown by those only somewhat affected, to those severely affected by last week’s unwelcome August guest. With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only days away, perhaps it was meant to be that we all shared a reminder of what this country can look like when we all pull together as a family. Hurricane Irene has in her aftermath changed some of us for the better. Whether she has in fact changed us for good, is yet to be seen.
