Deb Kauble

About me:

I am the oldest woman on Myspace. (at least one that shows her real face and tells her real age) Seriously, I could be your mother... Check out the other photos of me on my pics page, if you must...

I have way more pets than any NORMAL people should have, but then, I never claimed I was normal. I have 1 lab,1 chow mix, 1 black cat and 4 birds. (2 cockatiels, 1 blue front amazon and 1 umbrella cockatoo.

I also have 2 grown children, 2 grown stepchildren and 4 grandchildren.

I spent 5 weeks in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina. I was a volunteer for the Red Cross. I did damage verification, client casework and staff shelter management. It was one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. When I retire from my regular job I plan do a lot more volunteer work. I felt "called" into action and I felt really blessed that I was able to do what I did. If I only made a difference in one person's life, I succeeded. Below are some images I brought home with me. As you look at these photos, please pray that we never forget the people lost and hurt, and how shitty our country's response was. God bless all who's lives were impacted by Katrina. It certainly changed MY life forever. And God bless all who answered the call to help. The people I worked with came from all over the WORLD and they were truly angels of God. I love them all very much and will NEVER forget any one of them. They are a part of me now and forever. Stephie, Kimmy, Warren, Phil, I love you guys! "It's all good!"

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An enrty from my Red Cross Journal:

October 15th, 2005

This was my last day of service before returning home from my first tour of duty. And it has been the most powerful of the last three weeks. When I woke up this morning, my arms were numb from sleeping funny on them on the air mattress. Thank GOD I got it, though. Sleeping on the loud, creaking cot was killing my back.

When I went out to the entryway of the gym, to see what the ERV brought for breakfast, I was disappointed to see that the ERV had not only not come, but was not going to come anymore. I had developed a taste for powdered eggs. The Baptists closed up their kitchen and were done cooking for us. That really sucked because I was really hungry. I ended up eating cheetos and a warm diet coke for breakfast. Not a very good start to a long day. I did get Stephanie to swing by the Sonic before we left for Hackberry. Thank GOD for Sonic. I have eaten that crap so much that I am sure I will have a heart attack from the cholesterol before I get to go home. But they were the ONLY place able to open in this whole town of Sulfur, right after Rita hit town. Some of those kids were working 12 and 14 hour days and actually LIVING in the store! That is dedication. And I'm here to tell you all, the Red Cross volunteers REALLY appreciated it, even if it was killing us! LOL!

Instead of working the McNeese State University supercenter we had set up there, I was going to spend my last work day with Stephanie down at the Hackberry Community Center. This was the beginning of the REALLY bad damage from Hurricane Rita. From Hackberry down to Holly Beach to Cameron, the damage was SEVERE. The Constable of Hackberry decided to take us down to see the REALLY bad damage. She wanted us to be able to fully understand where the people we were going to service were coming from. And to really understand their emotional state we would, she felt, have to see it to believe it. From what the Constable of Hackberry told us, once we got there, Rita was a more powerful storm than Katrina when she hit land. And as many people as hurricane Katrina killed by causing the levees to break, and flood New Orleans, she saved by scaring people into leaving for Rita who wouldn't have before. EVERYONE at Holly Beach left before Rita hit. And I had several visitors to the Hackberry Community Center tell me that if it hadn't been for Katrina, they would NOT have heeded the warnings to evacuate. And they would be dead now.

The community center was a small building that had just that day, gotten off generator power and was back online. There was still a sign on the bathroom door that said, "Please don't drink the water, it is NOT potable." All hand washing had to be done with antibacterial wipes. It was dry outside and really dusty. Everything that was coated with mud, was creating this fine dust that coated everything within minutes of being outside. Including us. (God knows what we have been breathing in for the last three weeks.) There were semi truck trailers backed in all along the edge of the lot with their back doors open for easy access. One was totally filled with bottled water. (the canned water tastes HORRIBLE, by the way) One was filled with blue tarps, to cover damaged roofs. (EVERYWHERE you look, IF there is a building standing, it likely has a blue tarp on it) There were stacks of clean-up kits everywhere. (cleanup kits were 5 gallon buckets filled with a squirt bottle, rags and sponges, soap and bleach and rubber gloves, masks and a scrub brush.) There were flats of bleach everywhere and up on the porch of the center, there were boxes and boxes of donated clothing and shoes and toys, all sorted by sex and size. There was the Sheriff cars, the ambulance and the EMTs standing around, ready to respond as well as Homeland Security people and FEMA people waiting for the first influx of people returning to see if they had any homes left. (and most of them didn't) There was a health nurse inside, giving tetanus shots and stitching up minor wounds. She was also giving out flu shots, as well.

The Salvation Army ERV pulled up, full of meal boxes to be unloaded. Since we had not seen anyone at the Red Cross booth, I volunteered to help the ERV drivers unload the food. There were tons of it. All these little pre made boxes with soup and fruit and granola bars and cereal boxes and cheese and crackers. They say enough food for an adult for one day. It would be a sparse day of eating, to be sure but I guess it would keep you from starving. I have eaten this stuff, myself for the last three weeks, so I know this to be true. They also had some cleanup kits to be unloaded as well as some personal comfort kits, which included a tooth brush and tooth paste, wet wipes, a comb and a wash rag. Everyone from the deputy, the EMTS and nurse, and Stephie and I from the Red Cross, as well as the FEMA reps, all helped the Salvation Army ERV drivers unload.

It was very quiet in the community center for a long time. Around lunchtime, a few people started to drizzle in. This was the first day people had been allowed to come back to Cameron Parish. We chatted with some of the EMTS, who we found out, were also locals who had lost their homes as well. They were working 24 on 24 off and they were stressed and tired. The sheriff asked me to help him load some personal care kits for his deputies, who has also had losses and needed help but were so busy working that they couldn't get to the center to get it.

The nurse started getting busy with people who had come back and were getting hurt stepping on debris. Cuts, puncture wounds requiring tetunus shots and antibiotics were keeping her busy. She was also getting alot of allergies coming in. Lots of mold had already started growing..

The saddest thing I saw were all the little children coming in. Watching them ask to go home and watching the parents try to tell them that there was no home to go back to was SO sad..

Around the noon hour, a few people started to come in. There were a lot of little kids coming in with their parents. I decided to root through the toy box and I found some really tiny stuffed bears, wrapped in plastic to keep the dust out. I counted the kids and took that many bears out of their plastic wraps and started passing them out to the little kids. It made my heart feel a little better to see them smile. I remember three little boys. Brothers, about 3, 4 and 5 years of age. They had lost their home and everything in it. All they had were the clothes on their backs. The little one was wearing a pair of snow boots that were WAY too big for him, (it was 90 degrees outside!) but it was all he had to cover his feet. The whole area was too littered with debris to be barefoot so the boots would have to do. He was having a grand old time clunking around the center, chasing his older brothers and acting like he was a big foot monster. It was comical. He was just giggling and singing and seemed totally oblivious to the destruction all around him. Ahh, wouldn't be nice for ALL of us to be like him in his huge snow boots? God bless him.

The first and only person I would actually wait on that day came in some time after noon. His name was William Shehan. His mother was with him and he sent her off to see the guys at the FEMA table while he came and talked to me. As he sat down, I noticed that he looked a little bit like a deer in the headlights. He had this glazed-over, stunned look about him. He was absolutely filthy from head to toe. He was so grungy that he almost looked like a black man, but he wasn't. He had motor oil all over his hands and in his fingernails and his messy hair was pulled back into a greasy ponytail and tucked up into a grungy ball cap. As he looked up at me, I could see that he was crying. His eyes were red rimmed and full of tears and yet he had the bluest eyes I have ever seen. They seemed to jump out at me and grab me by the heart. As he began to speak, I could hear the sorrow in his voice as he told me that he and his mother had just gone out to where he used to live. He couldn't believe his eyes, he couldn't believe everything he owned, everything he had worked so hard for, was now gone. He said to me, "I just gotta sit here and cry for a minute and I don't want my momma to see me." As I filled out his 901 form, without looking up, I whispered to him to go ahead and cry, that he had good reason to want to cry, that it would just be between me and him and I wouldn't tell a soul. He put his hand on his forehead and shook his head in aknowledgement of what I had told him and whispered a broken, "thank you". Then, he covered his eyes and sat silently sobbing as I finished his 901 form for his financial assitance.

When I finished his form and told him how much the Red Cross was going to send him, he said, "Well, at least I can get my truck fixed now. The hurricane messed up my truck and I couldn't get to a job I had lined up in Texas. I work construction and I have been working on my truck all morning long." (I could see that!)

I asked him if he was married, as it was one of the questions I had to ask on the 901 form. He said, "That's another thing that makes this so hard for me. I am all alone except for my momma." I leaned in real close to him, got really eye to eye with him and whispered, "No, you aren't alone." He understood what I meant and I saw a spark of light in his eye that I hadn't seen before. Then he actually kinda cracked a little smile.

As we finished up with the form, I wished him well and sent him to the FEMA table to get the next round of forms filled out. After a while, I left my seat to use the restroom. As I walked past him, I reached out to rub my hand along his back and give him a little pat. He turned to look at me and smiled. He wasn't crying anymore.

About 10 minutes later, after I thought that he had already left the building, he came back into the center with a hot cup of coffee in one hand, a sack full of the sandwiches in another and a huge smile on his face. As he started to turn to walk out, he turned back to face me, stood there for a moment, nodded my way and lifted his cup to me as he walked out with a huge smile on his face and a renewed bounce in his step. I had made a different in his life that day. It was at that moment I realized why I had come here and the impact I had made. What a fitting way to end my first round of service to this community.

Dr. Phil says that there are 7 defining moments in everyone's life. Today, this day, was one of mine. I will leave this place a different person. I will leave this place a BETTER person with a new appreciation for my own blessings, a clearer picture of my own destiny and a deeper love for humanity. I will never forget you, William Shehan

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