Helping Out As I Can

The tornado that came through St. Louis on May 16th decimated large portions of several neighborhoods on the North Side. This is an old part of the city, with many houses built a century or more ago. A few of the neighborhoods are genteel, but others suffer from widespread disinvestment and poverty.

Tony and I talked about what we could do to help with the relief efforts. On the Volunteer Center of the United Way website there was a list of opportunities. Many of them involved strenuous labor like debris clearing or boarding up buildings (neither of which I would be much help with), but when I saw a two-hour shift packing food boxes we decided that we could do that and signed up for this morning.

Before we left the house Tony's map app said the most direct way to the volunteer location was through Forest Park, which had also been hit by the storm. After I got off the highway the drive was surreal; the closer I got to the most affected area, the more huge uprooted trees I saw. Many of them had been cut into pieces and moved to the sides of the road for eventual pick up.

As I left the park the devastation was even more apparent. There were apartment buildings with almost every window boarded up. Other buildings had partial or no roofs. Out of respect I didn't want to take any photos, but if you Google 'St Louis 2025 tornado' you can find evidence of the destruction.

We got to the volunteer location and learned that instead of food we would be packing bags of personal care items. (I was happy to help in whatever way I could.) The front hall was converted into a packing station, with four long tables filled with paper goods and personal care necessities.

The project started with a crew of six, but several others soon joined in. Originally each bag included two rolls of paper towels and two rolls of toilet paper, along with miscellaneous items of our choice. When the paper towels ran out there was more discretion involved. I was working on the side with feminine products and added boxes of tampons and pads to each bag.

There were so many people lending a hand that the packing was finished in an hour. Another set of volunteers took the bags over to the drive through distribution area. After a little down time (during which I learned about other opportunities for doing relief work) I helped load cases of water onto carts for distribution.

Shortly before our two-hour shift was over we were offered the opportunity to start sorting though donated clothes. However, Tony had an afternoon commitment so we said our goodbyes and left. I drove home a slightly different way, but the trail of devastation still continued for several miles. Buildings were roofless, utility poles had snapped off, and several stoplights were non-functioning.

But just a quarter of a mile later there was absolutely no storm damage. Tornadoes are crazy things.

Five years ago today: Phooey!