[Community-service] Helping out after a natural disaster

[Darian Smith]

Hi Chris,
  This  makes me think of one of the few regrets I have  regarding my
AmeriCorps Service Via the National Civilian Community Corps; never
being called to do disaster work, we had groups that responded to the
flooding in North Decoda, and I never really  woke myself up from
overthinking  long enough to put myself higher up on our  team
disaster ranking board.
 I did some post  disaster work and while alot of that was canvicing
and clean-up and a few months after the fact. I would probably say
that if one has interest, they would  consider contacting   groups or
organizations that are getting involved in the effort. Redcross is
mandated to be a part of any disaster relief effort, so if you can
hook up with a local chapter, that is probably a good thing to do.
they may set up call centers, or have people who are going to help
distributing food and other items.  I would say  that where ever you
go, get a good sense of what they need and jump in with a willingness
to do it.  organizations can't really turn away help if they are
lookging for it ( beggers can't be choosers and all).
    just some thoughts,
  Darian

On 4/25/11, christine-parsons at sbcglobal.net
<christine-parsons at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I live a little south of St. Louis. On Friday evening, St. Louis and some of
> the surrounding areas were hit with devastating tornados. Quite a few homes
> were significantly damaged, and our international airport, which took a
> direct hit, was temporarily closed while they cleaned things up. Thankfully,
> there were no fatalities or even serious injuries.
>
> I heard on the radio this morning that the Salvation Army and other
> organizations are looking for volunteers to help out with the relief effort,
> and this got me thinking. Have any of you ever helped out after a natural
> disaster? If so, what did you do? Did you actually go out into the field and
> help directly with the clean-up effort? How did that work? If not, what
> other types of things did you do?
>
> Chris
>


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Darian Smith
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