Can’t every day be like Christmas?
It was late August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina visited New Orleans and area Southern states. Hurricane winds up to 170 miles per hour represented one of the most powerful storms on record; torrential rainfall and destruction would follow in its path.
As I watched this event unfold on my TV on a Tuesday morning, I wondered how I could help. I left my house that morning as an armed security officer on my way to a duty post at the FEMA center in Cumberland, Maryland.
While on post there, a FEMA supervisor came around and was soliciting workers to pull travel trailers to Louisiana to establish temporary homes for thousands of displaced citizens.
I completed an application, left for home and told my wife. She suggested I was crazy. “My Dargan roots, I suspect,” was my reply. “They will never call me,” I concluded.
The next day they called and asked if I could report for orientation and departure on Friday and be prepared to stay out for 30 days. I responded I needed to make some phone calls but I would report on Friday.
The wife and kid were a little upset, but I felt guided by my decision making.
As I watched the recent scenario in Kentucky unfold, it reminded me so much of that trip in 2005.
The destruction that those storms caused is unbelievable unless you see them firsthand. The flooding in New Orleans and the social problems and despair afterward was heart-wrenching. It was like a war zone.
I can almost relive that same emotion from watching recent events unfold in Western Kentucky. Reports suggest this wave of tornados covered a 200-mile front causing 74 deaths at last report, and total destruction to entire communities.
A return to normalcy will not seem possible.
Once again FEMA is on the scene and directing the services among other groups in providing assistance to the helpless.
I saw on TV where one fellow loaded his truck with his barbecue grill, grub and water and went to offer his assistance.
A person helping other people during a tragedy is really something to behold. It refreshes one’s soul.
In early September 2005, eight volunteers and I left Cumberland to begin our journey to Louisiana. We had truck drivers, big equipment operators, construction workers, and a retired prison warden on our convoy.
We each pulled a 25-foot camping trailer.
We remained together during our assignment for the next two months until I contracted MRSA and returned home.
The destruction seen while riding down through Alabama, Mississippi and nearby states was unbelievable. As we got closer to Baton Rouge, our trailer setup location, FEMA had established a headquarters and ours were some of the first trailers to arrive.
We slept in a warehouse and some nights in our trucks as we traveled to get other trailers. We established a receiving site for trailers that would come from across the country to Baton Rouge.
Those trailers were inspected upon arrival and then crews would go out and establish sites with electric and plumbing so displaced families could have a place to live. Some citizens were also housed in hotels as well until the beds were filled.
Many people in Kentucky and close by have lost family members, homes and belongings, sustained injuries, had their employment buildings destroyed and a multitude of other problems. They will require housing and much-needed assistance.
There will be many other agencies in addition to FEMA which will come to help like the Red Cross, Salvation Army and churches, but donations to these organizations are important too.
Weather disasters are life-impacting events, especially if you happen to be in the center of them like residents of Western Kentucky.
To be a humanitarian means to extend a helping hand to others in need.
I remember my Grandmother Gen was always quick to offer a helping hand to her neighbors while dealing with hardships herself.
And Christmas was always a time of giving, visiting and chatting with neighbors and friends. I remember an old Elvis Presley tune and those lyrics he sang, “If every day could be just like Christmas, what a wonderful world this would be.”
Can you imagine a world like that?
So if your Christmas shopping is done this year, why not send a few dollars to help someone else in need?
The Kentucky governor has established a Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund to assist tornado victims; and the Red Cross, Salvation Army and others are always on the scene too.
Why can’t every day be like Christmas?
Please donate today. It can be.
Lloyd "Pete" Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Make more days like Christmas by helping those in need in Kentucky
