Flood

The week started like any college week. Monday came too soon and class was too early. As I headed out of the dorms at Loyola University it was raining. Now in New Orleans it rains a lot, but this was a real down pour. Sheets and sheets of water. By the afternoon it was clear we were in for some flooding in the city. The Jesuits had built Loyola in New Orleans on one of the high spots of the city, so we were safe form the rising waters. 

That night in my dorm room there was a knock at the door. It was my classmate and friend Marc Mouton, in his friendly southern, Lafayette Louisiana voice "hey, want to do some good in this storm? " Before I knew it I was rounding up SigEp brothers to head out with me to "do some good" with flood victims. His last words, "I'll find a van meet me down in the parking lot in 30 minutes. Make sure everyone has a laminated form of identification!" and he was gone.

This simple agreement lead to two weeks of amazing learning and adventure for me and the group of brothers that joined in. 

The three things I learned from the flood:

1. Laminated Form Of ID: Listening more intently is a plus, most time people tell you the details of what they want and what will happen – but you need to listen better. We ended up working as part of the Red Cross relief efforts going to help families and people impacted by the flooding of the Pearl River. It ranged from setting up an Emergency Evacuation Center at a school, to delivering water and supplies to towns stranded and cut off due to all the water. Water was everywhere. Over roads, over trees, over houses and it was still raining.  

By the end of the second week of all this effort to help, we were in Slidell LA filling sand bags at a feverish pace. It was one in the morning, the crew was in the same clothes for the past three days. There were National Guard soldiers everywhere, the emergency flood lights were running full blast it was one AM.

We were taking a 15 minute break and I walked over to the nearest solider and asked "so where are all these sandbags going? You guys are taking them were? "I'll show you, come with me…" as a small group of us walked with him about 5 blocks to a quite, dark street.

There before us was a wall of sandbags, this wall went as far as we could see to the left and the right of us, and was as tall as a three story house. One one side there was a house at our level and the solider said "on the other side of that pryamd shaped wall is homes like this one under water, lucky the rain stopped because the water is at the top. It will get a bit worse because of all the run off, so what you are doing is really helping." With that he clicked on his flashlight and we could see the water rippling at the top of the sandbags and snakes were coming off the water and down the sandbags. With that he said, "boys we are just a few blocks from this and if it breaks, well…" We want back and for the next 5 hours bagged sand like crazy.

It was at that moment of seeing the wall, the water, the snakes the words "laminated form of identification" ringed in my ears. I now understood why he asked for this. On the van ride back I asked Marc and he said, with that Mouton smile "yes in deed, if any of use died in this we wanted to be able to identify the bodies…"

2. Know Your Customers: Marc and I were in a Pirogue boat, underway. The boat was filled with cans of water and we were headed to a stranded town. As we moved through the dark water filled with tree tops, chimney tops and debris the boat owner and captain was looking out carefully. At one moment I realized he was wearing a gun belt with a 350 magnum in the holster. Our eyes meet and Roy patted the gun and said "I wear this because of all the snakes…" Later I learned the term snakes was being loosely applied to any human looters and water snakes. 

After reaching the small remote town and finding thirty people we went about unloading the water, some other supplies and getting a list of names of who was there and who the people felt were missing. Just before we headed out one of the people said "please go check on old Mr.Johnson we have not see or heard from him since this all started" - and off the three of us went to find his house and/or what was left of it.

As we came around a grove of tree tops we could see a perfect little hill, with a perfect little farmhouse at the top, high and dry. Good I thought. As we bulled the small boat onto the driveway and started up the hill to the house we heard a distinctive sound, the clicking and pumping of a 12 12 gauge shotgun. "Click, sha-cinck, click.." all three of us froze, then loudly "how may I help you all?" As our eyes adjusted we could see an older man in a lawn chair set back in the open garage door. "Mr. Johnson we are with the Red Cross, please don't shoot. We are just checking on you at the request of the town people." His response, "yeah and…" Can we come a bit closer and see what you might need, water? Medical? Anything, and again please put the gun down…" As he lowered the weapon and we walked forward. "Need any water Sir?" Which is said, "come take a look, I have all the liquid I need."

As we came closer we could see that what we thought was a wall was really boxes of Dixie Beer, a solid cube that went up about ten feet and was as wide as 20 cases. Mr Johnson shared, "I can live off this for a while. My wife got out a here before the rain started and I am fine, thanks for checking." We talked with him and he seemed fine, as we turned to leave I remembered what the Red Cross training had stressed, make sure you have asked if there is "any thing" that you can do to help. As I said these words, Mr Johnson said "well, yes. Could you talk my electric bill and water bill and drop them in the post office please?" In my mind I thought, really – you want to pay these bills now, here, in the middle of all this. Without a word from my mouth he could see I was wondering why? Mr Johnson then said "I have never missed a bill payment in my life, for the past 60 years I have paid on time, this would mean a great deal." 

So off we went with a bundle of bills, all ready to drop in the post office. I made sure to hand them to a postal employee, feeling part of this mans commitment to be on time and in good standing. All these years later, every time I pay a bill I think of Mr Johnson and that feeling on his little private island and the trust he gave me in his commitment lineage. I went on this small side adventure not really thinking about this "customer" of the Red Cross and his needs. I left thinking, I need to be more observant and service driven in the future, be engaged and ask questions, listen more worry less about the response. 

3. You Learn In The Doing: At the end of the two weeks (which felt like 2 months) and even more so in the past 3 days when I had not slept more than a handful of 10 minute of catnaps I was thinking about how amazing this experience was. The trust between the organizations we were supporting, between my fraternity brothers and the trust between those we went to help and us. Like the fact that in the first 6 hours we were asked by the Red Cross to go as far into the flood area as any rescue team and set up a emergency shelter at an elementary school. With a 30 minute over view of everything we were required to do and a few reference binders and off we were. 

I remember at the start, Marc pulled us all together and said "the biggest thing, what all these people are going to want and really need is comfort, a sense of security, that someone is in charge and things are now going to get better. Got it?" All the brothers stood there, quite. Charlie said "and you mean this is us, we are these calm bringers, the rescue team? But…" and before he could say anything Marc said "believe in this, in what we are about to do. I know you can do it, all of you. Just listen, care and help them any way you can. I believe that this will be something amazing." One of the brothers said "lets go, lets get this done…" 

At that moment trucks started to show up with people in the back, supplies, cots, more and more people. Into the night everyone worked. People stepped up and into roles, like filling out all the required forms for aid and insurance; some into setting up sleeping rooms, other food stations and getting the kitchen set up, others basic medical need station (a nurse from the town showed up). Within 24 hours we had a real, live and calm rescue center. It was amazing and this was only the start. 

One interesting side story. Marc was a few years older than all of us (was always an honorary brother of the fraternity after this adventure) and he had been a police officer. So we all naturally came to him as our leader over the two weeks. At a point at the emergency shelter Charlie came over to Marc and started asking him questions. Marc waved me over and asked Charlie to repeat what he just said. "A family just came in, about 15 people. They had their great, great grandmother in a chair they carried her in. When I asked for the form the year she was born, if this is right she is 112 years old." We all looked at each other, "and this is her 12th flood." 

By the end of the two weeks we had seen, done and been in the middle of amazing moments. Exhausted as the van pulled back on to campus everyone shuffled up to their dorm rooms and crashed. I just fell into my bed, muddy and worn out. I sleep for 15+ hours. When I woke up my bed was a huge muddy stain (rust red) and I took the longest shower ever. As I reflected over what had started as a simple "hey want to do something to help" became a memory bank of doing. We helped get people out of areas flooding, brought water to trapped villages, sandbagged for hours, sleep on floors and traveled with the Louisania Army National Guard for days. We all learned a great deal, at the core was leadership and service in the doing, in the moment. 

What an amazing opportunity to serve the communities of Louisiana, learn so much in a short time and meet some amazing people.

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David Carrithers brings over 25 years practical experience to business strategy, growth and brands. He is currently looking for a team to join full time and be apart of the risk/reward coefficient of the success of the business and team. As well David can be a "rent-a CEO/CMO" for those businesses in transition or in need of fast change.

Contact David at 707-484-3620 or david@businesshive.com today!