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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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March
2007
Volume
12 - Number 3 |
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My Thoughts About the Hurricane Katrina Disaster By Larry Kirk The American Red Cross and its army of volunteers played a vital role in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. I volunteered along with thousands of others that wanted to help. I spent the end of September 2005 working in a Client Service Center in Mississippi. While the center provided many useful services, its main activity was the distribution of monetary relief aid. I witnessed first hand how simple it is for the world to donate massive amounts of money to a relief effort and how incredibly difficult it is to quickly, safely and equitably distribute that money to those in need of the assistance. Our days at the Center were long and busy. For a while we worked in a cramped train station. Later we moved into the town’s civic center. Both locations had power and adequate air conditioning. Outside it was hot and humid. Thousands came, waited in long lines, and ultimately received a relief check from the Red Cross. The frustrations we felt while working those days were discussed each evening as we walked or drove back to the churches where we slept. We frequently heard of the desire to provide more assistance to particular individuals. Those who had truly been devastated by the hurricane did not have to tell you of their hardship. We could easily see their shock and disorientation. We did all within our means to help these folks, but we wanted to do more for them. Another more irritating frustration was the selfishness of the individuals that took, but did not truly need disaster assistance. This bothered us. It was insulting. The world had donated a fortune, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers had stepped out of their lives to help distribute it. Everyone wanted the aid to reach those who had been hurt by Hurricane Katrina, the true victims. The reality was that the needy and the greedy had lined up for assistance. Hurricane Katrina damaged such an expansive area that conducting a traditional damage assessment was unrealistic. We were told that the massive area affected by the hurricane had been circled on a satellite photo, and the zip codes located within the circle were blanket qualified to receive Red Cross financial aid. We worked from lists of these qualified zip codes every day. If an individual could show proof that they resided in a qualifying zip code, they received a set amount of aid. A year and a half has past since the disaster. My heartache for those with shattered lives and my bitterness for the unaffected that worked the system have lessened. The passing of time has allowed me to form a new, broader perspective. The American Red Cross was distributing money that was privately donated to the relief effort. The world wanted their voluntary aid to go to the hurricane victims, and everyone wanted the aid to reach the victims quickly. Today I can accept that the speed of distribution justifiably superceded more stringent need qualification. A sympathetic donor in Arizona could not reach into her television and assist the family she saw awaiting rescue on a rooftop. She could, however, participate by donating money to the Red Cross relief fund. Her donation quickly transferred to the fund, but it had no effect sitting there. So we distributed it. And while ultimately the unaffected joyfully received money for frivolous purchases, those with shattered lives received money too. Fortunately, the truly affected did not have to wait any longer for that aid. Their difficult rebuilding process could continue, and it would do so with some added help from that concerned woman in Arizona and from others like her around the world. |