I will, never forget super storm Sandy here in Jersey. Total devastation. No electric.. no water for 14 days. It was like we were a bombed out area in the war. entire blocks of houses washed out to sea. Simple living was very difficult.
I will never forget FEMA came in early and gave out voucher checks to buy food... problem was.. all the food stores had no electric.. no none spoiled food or were destroyed. So, that was a useless piece of paper.
I didn't see the first Red cross truck until day 6. I lost a lot of respect for them during that storm... they just were not there. I am sure they have done good jobs elsewhere, but not that storm.
It was citizens from many different states that just loaded up their cars and brought. food, water.. clothing. Medicine.. baby supplies. blankets, etc., etc. schools were opened as drop off places.. churches too.
It was people from surrounding states who saved us.. not the Red Cross and not FEMA. I know folks like that are already loading their cars to help Fl.
Thank God for people like that.
Being a member of Red Cross, I sincerely hope you see a quicker response next time you need them. I know they sometimes don't mobilize as quickly as they would like to, but there was a fair amount of warning with Sandy.
With Florence, they seemed to mobilize quicker. In fact, they mobilized fundraisers within 3 days to help the victims replace belongings or find new homes.
I wasn't part of Red Cross during Sandy, so I don't know the reasons for the slow response, nor do I know if that caused a shake-up in the organization. One would hope it might.
