Emergencies and Disasters: Hope is Always on Call
Imagine being the young mother of a beautiful cherub faced little girl and a handsome round faced four month old boy. Your son is battling asthma and is recovering from pneumonia. Now image being that same mother woken up at 6:00 am with the shouts of “Fire!” You grab your precious children and head out of your apartment complex to safety. You are joined by your neighbors and watch your home while all your worldly possessions literally go up in smoke.
You might end the story here and express your pity for the situation and go on with your day. But for this mom the story is only beginning. With no place to go, she shelters herself and her children in her car, away from the blazing sun and waits for hours to see if she can rescue anything from the smoldering ruins.
This is when The Salvation Army Emergency and Disaster Relief canteen arrives. Bringing with them cold water, hotdogs, chips and compassion. These provisions are given freely to the victims and workers alike with smiles and words of encouragement. The baby is given relief from the heat in the air-conditioned canteen by a willing volunteer. Mom gets a small break from the stress of caring for her young ones, and finally gets the news that she can go back into her apartment and try to recover diapers, clothes, and anything else she can salvage from this devastation.
With words of thanks and smiles of gratitude, The Salvation Army packs up their supplies and goes back to their headquarters with final offers of shelter for those who might need it and a promise to be back if necessary.
What we offered was such a small thing in this mother’s life; however, what we gave was huge…Hope!
This is a typical day for The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster team. Fires, floods and devastation from storms are just a few of the many emergencies the team responds to on a regular basis. Chuck McDougall has been head of EDS for The Salvation Army of Eastern Michigan for the past seven years. A lifetime member of The Salvation Army church, Chuck was a former aircraft mechanic but was called to the ministry of disaster services and hasn’t looked back.
“God gave me this opportunity to help people at what is often the lowest point in their life, when they have experienced disaster,” says Chuck. “It breaks my heart to see people often left with only the clothes on their back after a tragedy, but we have a corps of trained spiritual care counselors, so we are there to listen to them and offer both encouragement and assistance with food, shelter and other needs.”
Chuck is also one of the Chaplains for the Detroit Fire Department, and is on call with numerous City and County fire departments and emergency managers. He and his team of volunteers have to be ready to go in an instant, so he maintains a group of dedicated and trained people who readily respond to these calls – sometimes in the wee hours of the morning.
The Eastern Michigan EDS team has 13 canteen vehicles in its emergency fleet, which carry, food, water, coffee, diapers, socks, gloves and other clothing items – and even a few stuffed animals to comfort children.
The team’s greatest need is to get new volunteers to serve food or provide spiritual counseling. Volunteers must be trained, but there are classes offered on a regular basis. To learn more about becoming an emergency disaster service volunteer, visit the national EDS Website at disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.