***LIFE IN AN EMERGENCY SHELTER

A Red Cross Responder’s Notes from the Monument Fire, Arizona

Since the fire people have asked what life in a shelter looks like. The following is my take.

From outside the shelter at night you could see orange flames peek beyond the mountains turning the black smoke above them to a red sky, only a few miles from the Sierra Vista school serving as an emergency shelter. Usually in disaster response the event goes through first… Tornadoes, hurricanes, sometimes flooding. But with fires the survivors get to watch. For responders this creates an added variable. I’m a retired therapist, and though I do not believe we do clinical therapy in crisis response, we try to help stabilize those most dazed, anxious, agitated, despondent, or aggressive.

Of course all responders do this to try to help in some small, one-to-one, immediate way. But I confess to being less selfless. Survivors renew faith in how remarkable, decent, and effective human beings can be. I suspect this is the common variable among my Red Cross colleagues, the Salvation Army (Capt. bob and crew were role models), the city workers and the Sierra Vista community, which was a revolving, constant resource.

HOMES DESTROYED

The last count indicated 58 homes destroyed in the Monument Fire that began near the Mexican border and swept through the canyons south of Sierra Vista, a town of about 43,227 in 2009. The population is a mix of about 65 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic, 8 percent Black and 4 percent Asian. Average house/condo prices are about $210,000 and median income is about $56,000. Because the fire was so widespread it touched beyond Sierra Vista reaching into the Sierra-Douglas region of about 125,518, and surely impacted Ft. Huachuca’s population of around 10,000. Their ages spanned from a month to 95 years.

THE YOUNG AND THE OLD

For the most part, the very old (over 65) and very young (under 10) handled the crisis better than others; the elderly with dignity and resignation and the kids played in the the clever, caring area established by community volunteers. If we had videotaped them in their space it would look like any normal school day. For many others, being on “autopilot” (simply going from moment to moment, thinking a little of the future…and hopefully,not so much the past) was an effective defense in the face of trauma.

Among the elderly was 95 year old Pete, with his tales of 30 years a merchant marine, his glass eye, hook nose (called himself “hook” because the proboscis was broken in a fight as a kid and the slight turn to the left was never straightened). Having lived a tough life and seen much of the world, he had tales of fights, loves, and life at sea.

COMMUNITY

Because Sierra Vista is a pretty tight community the support system quickly established itself. Crying is a natural, often healthy release in the face of such ongoing shock and devastation, and there was a good share of that. But there was little hysteria and almost no panic. Volunteers appeared at every door, and worked 18 hour days, many with broom and mop in hand, sorting donations of food and clothing (and most importantly in the desert where temps reached 100), water, and attended to forms and administrative processes. Two energetic, effective local therapists pitched in and offered to be available for more long-range follow up.

The City converted a school to a shelter then a few days later Red Cross was asked to bring their experience to bear and take over. The place was crowded, and at times it was tough to tell the survivors from the helpers. The count of those sleeping on cots in the shelter reached about 140 several days in, but that figure is well below the activity that buzzed throughout the day as people who stayed with relatives or friends or in hotels were in and out of the shelter for meals, clothes, and “just a warm place to hang out” and get information. Nightly meetings with Incident commanders, the mayor and other officials helped verify information. Once food and shelter are provided for, information about homes, evacuation and fire progress becomes the number one need, and in disasters, reliable information is often hard to come by and masked by the rumor mill.

The sight walking into the shelter is akin to a busy airport… Registration tables, people milling around a large space, some seated and talking or reading, others wandering. Often there are rooms off this area, some with tables and snacks or food spread out, and some with lines of cots. Animals have their own shelters. Usually the cots are lines, separate areas for families and/or individuals with medical or psychological issues . Stacks of blankets, pillows, clothes, household items, food and drinks line the walls.

SURVIVORS

And then there are the hundreds of individual stories. For some it was tales of near escape from the flames. One lovely, sensible and bright but “bulletproof” 16 year old had sat on his roof watching the blaze whip towards him ignoring the sheriff’s bullho
to “get out right now” until he realized the flames were indeed hot and he scampered off in time.

Our staff asked me to talk to a woman who was crying hysterically alongside her silent husband. After she calmed enough to tell her tale, she laughed, “be careful what you wish for, Lew. I always taught my kids to trust in the Lord. No surprise then that my boy (age 25) said ‘mom I’m staying, the Lord will protect me.’” When asked how she handled that irony, she quickly added “I told him that he could stay but I thought Jesus told those guys to come get my ass out of here so we’re leaving!”

Most people in disasters handle the loss, chaos, and uncertainty with aplomb and often quiet dignity. This was surely the case with several couples, apparently well educated, with comfortable if not great wealth, who sat and quietly offered the warmth of their wisdom to anyone within speaking distance: “no one was hurt, that stuff was just stuff… We’ve come back from tough times before.” That approach was not limited to the older and wiser. The ten year old daughter (going on 30) of a mother whose anxiety attack totally immobilized mom tried calming her with: “mom, we’re ok… We’ll get a new place… We lost things, not people.”

Several real estate agents sponsor a website that helps renters find places. Working day and night they found longer term arrangements for displaced families (and pets) when it seemed impossible.

One night at one a.m. I came on one of my favorite people; a tall, well conditioned 50 year old man who was so devoted to his beautiful Golden Retriever that he slept in his car with the dog in the parking lot every night. Despite everyone’s best efforts to have him sleep inside the shelter and the dog in the kennel, he patiently repeated in his soft-spoken, eloquent voice that he appreciated the offer, but politely declined.

One of the hardest working, most devoted people at the shelter was an Afghanistan vet, originally from New Orleans, who moved to Sierra Vista after Katrina. Her take was: “Silly me, wanted to get away from violence and disasters.”

I’ve been a therapist for decades, but I confess that no therapy or “psychological first aid” can do for anxious, depressed people what hair dressers accomplish in a half hour. We first noticed this at Katrina, but it had the same impact in Sierra Vista.

Fire does strange things. One young mother showed a cellphone picture of her house– standing untouched in a circle of charred, torched trees. Also untouched was a 50 foot pine tree and… her propane gas tank. Go figure.

TRUE HEROES

Make no mistake…. The true heroes and difference-makers here were the fire fighters and Forest Rangers. After months with no rain, the land is so dry and volatile that at one point a fire broke out and were it not for the immediate response of our heroes, it almost certainly would have flared into a major conflagration. It was sparked by a bulldozer hitting a rock. So the next day firefighters and rangers, attempting to complete a fire break deep in mountainous terrain, found it necessary for men with tanks to walk ahead on either side of the bulldozers to prevent sparking. This is tough enough work, but it’s hard to imagine it in 100+ temperatures. One could break a sweat simply walking a few feet.

I believe in finding humor in the mess. Survivors do as well, and laughter found it’s way into many conversations. My sense of humor kicked at 4.30 one morning when I rolled over and the cot collapsed, dumping me on my head.

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

Running a shelter is no small effort, particularly when 40-50 mph winds fanned the fire and evacuations were expanded and retracted. It wouldn’t be called a disaster if things went smoothly, so rough edges can be expected. From my platform the key issues in relief efforts are simple:

1. Clear, strong leadership: people who are confident enough to maintain a structure as a guideline and flexible enough to stretch it when that makes sense. The most effective shelter manager I know puts it simply: you go in with “humility and expertise.”
2. accurate information available to survivors as immediately as humanly possible
3. Keep the paperwork from getting between helper and survivor. Record keeping is a good thing. Nice to track people, damage, properties, meals, available resources and staff and much more. But when face to face with survivors, connection is what counts.
4. Above all, in disasters as in life, before saying anything, it helps to ask, “whose need is this wisdom meeting?”

IN THE END…

In the end, there is a circular effect to the emotions that surface in disaster response. Many, if not most survivors look forward, try to make plans, and become remarkably resourceful. Often laughter and warmth spread. This reinforces the commitment of responders and helpers, which, in turn, helps release some of the energy required to move on to the next day, which, as we all know, always comes.