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In early September, I went to Baton Rouge and Houma, Louisiana to serve on the Spiritual Response Team (SRT) in support of the American Red Cross operation after Hurricane Gustav. The SRT is made up of board-certified chaplains from a number of chaplain organizations who have received intensive specialized training by the Red Cross. I have been a member of this team for several years and I have been deployed on several other disasters, including Hurricane Katrina.
I arrived in Baton Rouge with several other chaplains: a Presbyterian from New Mexico and a U.C.C. pastor from Massachusetts. Within a few days we were 13—one of whom was the “lead.” He was a young Roman Catholic layman from the state of Washington. In total we were 10 men and 3 women; in addition to the 3 of us mentioned above, we were 5 Roman Catholics, 1 American Baptist, 1 Buddhist, 1 Methodist and 1 Church of the Nazarene. We lived in staff shelters which were large rooms—mostly gymnasiums in churches. We all slept on cots or on the floor, in places that sometimes had electricity—and air conditioning!—hot water (in gang showers) and all in all it was described as “hardship deployment.” We all were advised of this beforehand—there were no surprises regarding our accommodations and we were all grateful for what we had because we encountered thousands of people who had less than we.
Firstly, let me say that the Red Cross volunteers I met came from every state including Hawaii and Alaska, and also from Puerto Rico. These men and women were absolutely professional; they delivered food, water and ice to shelters, and there were many others who set up and ran these shelters where the evacuees were treated courteously and with respect.
Secondly, the evacuees were terribly needy. The national media ignored us. Now I know how the people in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida must have felt during Katrina. New Orleans was spared a frontal assault and there were no fatalities and we became p. 85 in the news and non-existent in the broadcast media. However, Baton Rouge suffered the worst from Gustav—damage was far worse than any other storm in its long history including Katrina.
When we arrived (9/4) almost all of the city was without electrical power. The street lights were not working, most telephone service was interrupted and only a handful of service stations had the power to pump the gas—causing lines for gas that exceeded 5 hours in some places. There were thousands of trees down; some had fallen on houses and churches, some across streets and roads, and the city of over 400,000 people was crippled. By the time I left (9/13) most of Baton Rouge was coming along. Southern Louisiana was still struggling and also suffered considerable surge from Hurricane Ike.
In Houma, largest city in Bonne Terre Parish, I met some people whose lives will not be comfortable anytime soon. I met and prayed with a woman who lives on the Bayou. She has a small 16-unit motel and a 2-bedroom house—all only 17” above sea level. I encountered an 8 year old boy in a shelter who was drawing. I asked him to tell me about his picture. He had drawn himself and a leprechaun (his alter ego) very small and their world was a very large mushroom; neither he nor the leprechaun had legs in the picture. It showed me that he was small and weak in a large and powerful world. The “no feet” usually indicates a lack of grounding. I hope that this youngster gets lots of TLC soon, but I doubt he will.
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Contact Joel Harvey, PhD
Posted by Perry Miller, Editor at October 16, 2008 5:19 PM
