Instead of writing about my KIPP experience this
month. I am going to instead describe what I experienced this month post the
tornado that struck New Orleans.
For
the second time this year, we went out on Disaster Assessment for the American
Red Cross (ARC). A group of us went around to "sectors" designated by
the ARC people. We were armed with "DA Forms" to use on a
house-by-house basis. We recorded every house on each street as we walked down.
We were each assigned a partner, someone to walk the other side of the street
with us. It was up to us to determine the severity of the damage to each home,
the levels being designated as the following: destroyed, severe, moderate,
mild, and affected.
I have never witnessed in person the aftermath
of a tornado. The experience was absolutely flooring for me. I would walk down
a street, with approximately 10 houses on each side. House “1 and 2” would be
perfectly fine, of course with the exception that they no longer had power.
However, as I progressed down the street, the severity of damage increased. For
some streets, by the time I had gotten to house “5 and 6” these houses were destroyed.
In fact, numerous times I would get a to a certain part of the street, and a
house would be completely “missing.” The four walls, the foundation, all of it
would be completely diminished to ruble. I was in disbelief. A force on this
planet, that could just leave someone’s home, someone’s entire livelihood reduced
to essentially nothing. I wish I could say that I will never see anything like
that again. But I am not sure. The experience was life-altering. I am glad I
could help with the response, while I hope no more natural disasters occur
while I’m here, I will look to assist the ARC again should they need it.
