The Blizzard of 2011

 When word came in that the snow storm was predicted to be 12 to 20 inches deep we at our local Red Cross office began to make plans in case we would have to set up a shelter. Our local Fire Dept. pulled our Mass Care trailer to our local designated shelter location. Being prepared is part of what we do!

I decided to stay in town at my little townhouse since our Red Cross volunteers were turning in their availability. I knew snow drifts much worse at my house in the country and there was the possibility I would not be able to get back into town if I was needed.

Thankfully, my neighbor let me park my truck in his drive so I could get it off the street. Nothing is worse than having the snow plow come by and bury your vehicle in piles of snow. I was so thankful I did before the night was over! I heard that snow plow coming by in the middle of the night!

I kept going outside and sweeping off my porch cause my storm door opens outward and I didn't want to get snowed in either! At about midnight I decided I better go outside and shovel my walk so you could see the steps and not fall.... starting to get deep out there!

The next morning I was so thankful to look out my door and see my neighbor had cleared not only the drive so I could get my truck out but had also cleared the sidewalk from my house to his so I could get to my truck. What a blessing that was!

So thankful for our city workers and those snow plows!

I spent the morning watching my industrious neighbor across the street shovel out his driveway. He is about to finally meet the plowed street and be able to be mobile once again!

There was lots of shoveling snow all over town. Everyone was trying to find snow shovels as well as other snow supplies. I heard one store in town told them that they did not have snow shovels cause it was out of season. Ha. Ha. Ha. But you can buy a bikini ......

Think my neighbor decided he has had enough? Heading to a warmer place to live that doesn't snow? Or selling his snow?

I hope everyone remembers how hard this weather is on our little friends that live outside. My little bird friends were excited to see me throwing out that bird seed!

This little fella was more hungry than scared and let me take his pic in exchange for some sunflower seeds. Isn't he/she beautiful?

I had chickadees, and wrens and redbirds and blue jays and even a couple doves all excited about my sunflower seeds.

We never got the call from the American Red Cross to set up the shelter but we  were prepared and that was what counted! So I went back out to the homestead to enjoy the snow with the grandkids. 

The kids wanted to come down to my house to have biscuits and gravy so their  Poppy went next door to pick them up on the 4-wheeler. Living next door does have its benefits!

Even though Poppy took the tractor and scraped the snow away from our patio door the kids still had plenty of snow to play in.

Don't they look like they are having a good time??

And even momma Rachel pulled on the overalls and took the kids out to play.... And she loves this snow much more than I do!

Spring, please come soon!

I spent the past several days resting up after mom's funeral and staying at my little "townhouse" as we call it. It has been bitter cold this past week and our first snow fell. Now, I am ready for Spring. I'm always good after one snow.
Stay safe out there!

The future of the American Red Cross

Today was our local small town parade and my young grandson has anxiously awaited this day all week. I asked him to lead our American Red Cross lineup representing the future of the Red Cross organization. Our youth of tomorrow need to catch the Red Cross vision to carry on behind us. Mark loves everything about the American Red Cross and can hardly wait until he too can become a volunteer just as his Nana does. He's also wearing a blanket around his shoulders to represent the comfort we give to those who have suffered a disaster. There was not a prouder young man to be found than this one today!

Mark proudly carried the American Red Cross flag and led the way even though it was bitter cold. I'm proud of you Mark and look forward to you carrying on my love for serving in the American Red Cross!

Fires, Fires, Fires....

I've had house fires, a mobile home fire and an apartment fire to do casework on all in the last week. The weather is turning colder and it's the time of year when there is always an increase in fires. Please, please check your smoke alarms, make sure your outlets are not overloaded, use space heaters with caution and practice a fire escape plan with your family! A fire can destroy your home and take the lives of your family members in a matter of minutes!
Go to your local American Red Cross web site and learn more on how to protect your family!

A big thank you to my Red Cross friends!

I helped my fellow Red Cross friends with their fundraiser recently and I received this T-shirt, pin and name badge in the mail. I was so excited! I am one very proud American Red Cross volunteer and I love what I do even without the T-shirt and things. But sometimes the perks are good also! Thanks to my friends and you know who you are for the surprise package!

Future American Red Cross volunteer...

My nephew Spencer spent the day with me today and he loves the American Red Cross. He is leaving shortly for Mexico as they live there part of the year and there is a Red Cross office located close to his home there. So while he was here I made him an official "Future Red Cross Volunteer" by giving him a hat and making him a badge that says "Future Red Cross Volunteer." He was very proud of that status. This will be the generation carrying on the work in our footsteps.

You're looking good Spencer!

Now where is that road.....

Here's my fellow caseworker Valorie and I trying to locate where our latest fire is. The DAT team is on the way and we're standing by ready to help.

Gonna be doing casework for 7 counties....

The regional chapter of the Red Cross I volunteer with has been added 18 or so more counties to their district so our local office is being set up to do the casework for 7 of those counties. I am so excited cause I have wanted to do casework for a long time and here's my opportunity.

Today there were three of us doing the training. Hopefully there will be several more added so we can cover the area without spreading ourselves too thin.

We will do the follow up after the DAT team has went out at the time of the disaster and met with the client.

Brian was our instructor and he's a great person to do the training!

We will then come along behind the DAT team and make sure the clients have had their initial needs met and make sure there is nothing else we can help them with before we close out the case. We will be making referrals for places that can help with those things out of our area. So part of our work will be getting to know these 7 counties and what is available in each of them to use as referrals. Places we can direct clients to for additional food, clothing, household items, medical needs, eyeglass replacement. Things like that. Doesn't it sound exciting!! I love helping people and this will be a great opportunity for me to do that. I love volunteering with the American Red Cross!

So, before setting up our new office, we had to move out the old. Life is like that. The old needs to go many times before a new work can begin.

This was a very old, antique desk. And very HEAVY!! We're actually faking it! Turned it up on end and put it on those little slider thingy's and with BRIAN'S help, slid it right out the door. The new desks had to be brought up from the basement. Sounds like a lot of work but our office is located in a bank building and there is an elevator available. Do you know how interesting it can be to move a desk and get it in an elevator with two people without incident? Unfortunately, I backed my butt up against the little red button and set off the elevator alarm. Nothing like making a grand entrance!

Brian and Valerie are checking out the computer wiring that was left from the previous occupants. By the way, we get two laptops for our use. Won't that be great?

What a good day this was! Accomplished a lot, had fun doing it and now ready to get down to business. We take over officially on Saturday Aug. 1. And we're excited!!!

Early morning storm...

Thunder woke me up about 3:30 this morning and I turned on my scanner to hear that trees were down from high winds just a few miles from my house. I waited until about 8:00 thinking I would get called out but it didn't happen so I crawled back into bed about 8:30. Had just gotten to sleep when the call came needing Red Cross workers to make sandwiches and take them to give to the men working with chain saws at the storm site.

My youngest sister and I made the sandwiches on the tailgate of the pickup. Notice we're wearing gloves. Must follow Red Cross guidelines!

These chickens were oblivious to the large tree down and the men working around them. Probably thinking fresh worms that we didn't even have to dig up!

I am always amazed at how small a root system many trees have for their size.

This storm made a small path and thankfully no one was seriously hurt but lots of trees went down.

Then we hopped on the back of the truck and my brother-in-law Red Cross volunteer drove down the road. When we came to others working in the storm damaged area, we handed out sandwiches and drinks. Several of our Red Cross volunteers were working chain saws. It's good to be doing something to help neighbors in need!

Hope your day didn't start out at 3:30 A.M.

Heading off to bed to get some sleep.

Tornado On The Ground

A small tornado touched down on the Hines' property in northeastern Vernon County Wednesday evening -- twice, tearing into the Hines' wheat field and damaging some trees and headstones at a nearby cemetery. Mildred Hines said she's glad no one was hurt, and said witnessing a tornado for the first time in her life was an experience of a lifetime. --Photo courtesy Mildred Hines"The thing that really amazes me is that when I was watching how powerful that cloud was it reminded me of God, and how almighty powerful He is."


This is where my sister stopped her car and got out to watch the tornado. Probably the same swirling, boiling cloud my daughter and I watched from our house also. But at that time it was just starting to form.

Storms Just Keep Coming...

Boy are we getting pounded by storms. On Tuesday while working in the Red Cross office the storm sirens went off forcing us all to go downstairs. Since the Red Cross office is located in our local bank of course the most logical place to put us all was in the vault. Here's our local Disaster Action Team captain and our Chapter Director waiting out the sirens. Of course I'm taking the pictures.

We're having a good time but we are taking this seriously.

However, some of us kept wondering around and pressing our noses against the windows so we could watch the ever blackening skies. Luckily there was no damage done even though funnel clouds were spotted all around us.

Then today we went under a severe thunderstorm watch and about ten minutes after my daughter came down to the house we noticed really strange looking clouds just boiling and swirling above us. I had my scanner on and was listening as spotters were telling of funnel clouds dipping in and out of the sky a few miles from us. I think there was a total of 4 or 5 different tornadoes spotted this evening. My sister said she could see the tornado from town and as she got closer to her home she could tell she was driving right into it. So she pulled over at a friends house and watched it go right over the top of them.

Was a pretty exciting evening here in our small town. Thankfully, we again suffered no damage in our area. You can certainly tell it is the month of June and in the midst of tornado season.

You all take care and when severe thunderstorm warnings come over the weather channel don't think it is not a big deal because they can go into full blown tornado's without any warning. I certainly will perk up a little faster from here on out!!

Red Cross Helping Those In Need...

It has been an exciting week but boy am I glad to be back home!

I have been working out of the Joplin Red Cross office this past week mainly doing casework. Especially glad to have gotten some experience in that area. I'm trying to get trained in all aspects of Red Cross work in case we have a disaster of any kind in my local area.


Sharon is working JJ's desk while JJ is working out of Springfield this week. And she's doing a great job!

Donald isn't too sure about working around all us women. He's pretty much outnumbered!

The constant question this week has been "who has the car keys?". And of course just before Donald and I had to leave for Springfield to take the rental car back no one could find the keys once again. So we all had to line up and lay everything in our pockets out on the table to find the guilty culprit. And it was Iris!

We all had some good laughs this week to offset the sadness we encountered everywhere we went. Thankfully, where we worked was only loss of possessions and no loss of life. For that we are thankful!

This large tree had fallen across this mobile home and Iris and I went out to do client services. Here Iris is trying to figure out how to leave a note as the owner was not around.

We are a determined bunch at the Red Cross and we weren't about to leave without first leaving a phone number that we could be reached at in case the owner returns. But don't worry safety is top priority with the Red Cross so we never went anywhere that would put us as workers in danger.

Notice the piece of lumber lodged in the top of the tree? This was a common sight as buildings and debris blew everywhere during the wind.

This worker way up in the tree stopped and posed so I could take his picture while he was trying to cut this tree off the mobile home. It seems to me that very large trees don't have as large of root systems as I had always thought they would have. It didn't help that this worker was cutting even as it rained.

After we returned back to our motel room one night I opened my window to look out and see what the skies looked like because we were once again under storm watches and warnings and just outside my window was this HUGE sign. Iris and I were trying to figure what the chances were that if it blew down would it land right over the top of our beds?

And unfortunately, we had put all our clothes in the laundry and they were wet. So we had to dry some of our "unmentionables" in the best way available so if we got called out we would have dry clothes. Sorry if this picture is offensive to you. Just being practical....

We had a very busy week but a very worthwhile week. Any time you can help others makes it worthwhile. The Red Cross does not help with repairing structure damage as our job is to go in and make sure you have food, clothing, linens and an immediate place to stay right after a disaster. But we could give referrals and phone numbers to others that could help with the needs we couldn't help with. And we hoped we gave encouragement as well as a hug or pat on the back to everyone we came in contact with.

And so tonight as I was driving home I couldn't help but be reminded of how much I love my family and how thankful I am for them. Things don't really matter as long as your loved ones are safe and well.

I had forgotten I worked through Mother's Day and three of my little grandsons could hardly wait to welcome me home and show what they had gotten me. Anyway, two of them couldn't. Ha. Ha.

And when I got to my house my son Kevin and his family had brought me a Mother's Day present also. A Clematis Vine which is my favorite flowering vine. And in a color I don't have to boot! How exciting! Tomorrow I must work outside!!!

Yes, it's good to be able to go out and help with the Red Cross when my help is needed , but it's really good to be back home again too!

And I am thankful to have been allowed to work with such a great group of volunteers as we have in the local Joplin office! More new friends!!