Some stories don't deserve pictures or videos. Not everything is content. I'm just really struggling at the moment and find writing to be therapeutic.
I volunteered to accompany some friends whose sole purpose was to come to Kentucky and help out their family members who had lost everything in the flood. My good friends, Mya & Henry tried to prepare me, mentally, about what I would see. I've lived through a tornado, that happened a decade ago, I thought I could handle this. I was wrong.
I have never cried so much in my entire life. After viewing the destruction in Hazard, KY ... Mya took me back to the donation Center, that's in an automobile mechanic shop. I stayed there almost all day until Henry & one of his friends tricked me out of there. I'm currently in Tennessee, in a hotel and will go back to Kentucky in the morning. Back to the same Donation Center, we were setting up washers & dryers (so people could pick out clothes from the donations & throw them in the washer to have clean clothes later).
Get this, I walk in to the donation center and ask whose in charge and nobody knows. There's literally thousands of boxes spilling into the street because there's NO ONE in charge. Duh nuh nuh nuhhhh!! Super Nay to the rescue!! I just turned on my southern charm, said a lot of "Please" & "Thank You" and got shit DONE.
The Red Cross did make an appearance but they have too many tasks to do and not enough members to do them all. Keep in mind that this is the 11th day after the flood and the Sheriff's department still doesn't have everyone accounted for. It's such a huge task that more backhoes & cadaver sniffing dogs, from other parts of the country, are just now showing up. I know this from overhearing conversations. Not just from my friends, who brought their own RV for Henry's brother & his family to live in ... Since their 2 story home was flooded (and they didn't even live in a flood plain!!!)
I made up a free coffee station and people walked to that coffee station first!!! I encouraged the teens to keep the drinkable water bottles plentiful, Next to the coffee station and poured fresh ground beans into Ziploc sandwich baggies, when it was time to make a new pot. They also kept the pastries stocked on the table 😆. One of the girls, her name was Anna, she was wrestling a grown man over a case of Twinkies for the coffee station! I had to break them up!! 😆 Is it every "Anna" on the planet?? My goddaughter Anna was the same way when she was a kid 💕. It's just made me love the scrappy fighters! Then I noticed Anna had approximately 25 huge boxes around the coffee station. I praised her, told her what a great job she had done. She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes... I hugged her. She broke down crying 😪. I couldn't imagine having to live through her hell on earth. Her mom had left her with me so she could try and find somewhere they could stay. I let her cry and once she had gotten all her tears out, I asked her if she wanted to talk about it. That's when she told me her moms boyfriend and his son had been swept out a window, in the water. Anna said "it happened so fast!! We didn't know a flood was outside!" My heart ached for her and everyone who lived through hell on earth.
I kept Anna next to me at all times. She helped me with helping people coming in for food or medical care (that was in a clothing shop next door), she would fill up a shopping cart with medicine and take it next door. Anna helped make sandwiches, found a box of chips and passed those out. We had 4 ice makers, including one from a hotel that donated, not realizing that it would need a fresh water supply. The mechanic shop owner fixed that problem. We kept those ice makers running because it was the one thing people in hell want, no different here.
All the toy donations went 3 doors down to a mom & pop grocery store. The "mom" part of the equation had set up a free daycare but it was mostly full of little humans & teenagers who were helping. Anna said "please don't make me smell all this baby shit." 😆 before I could even ask her if she wanted to play with the babies!! 😆 Look, I had already decided that I love this kid. If her mama didn't come back .. She could come live with me. Her mama did come back!!! It was close to 8pm. They were going to stay one night in a red cross shelter and then go down to Texas where they have family. The red cross was giving them bus tickets. As Anna & her Mom was walking out the door, I see Anna running down the road, pick up a little boy and hug him. Then her mom starts running and wraps her arms around a man... Not being there, I'm going to say Anna & Her Mom were reunited with their family. Family isn't about blood, it's about love. ❤ I wish them all the best.
If you're wondering why I'm struggling... That was the only good thing I saw all day. Listening to the abject horror that many people lived through. It got to me. If you cry, I will feel it and I will cry too. Sometimes ... I can be standing next to someone who is sad and burst into tears.
Today was a rough day, mentally. I was supposed to go to the Maldives!!! I canceled that so I could have my heart ripped in half. Why do I do this to myself?? 😪
Sure, We brought an 18 wheeler of donations, an RV, 3 backhoes & 20 volunteers. I could have shoveled mud out of homes, still standing on their foundations. Or some other labor task to help homeowners with their houses but I saw a need and did my best in that one area. I did manage to get all the donations out of the road. You couldn't pull in to the parking lot but we did get donations where they needed to go. The humane society now has a months worth of pet food and the free daycare has every bag of diapers, that parents can take for free (not to mention the cases of formula & baby food).
Mostly what they need now, is "boots on the ground". It could take months to clean up and nobody had flood insurance. You think FEMA will step in? They hadn't yet. But hey! Let's send BILLIONS of dollars to other countries.
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