In my last post I said I wasn't sure exactly what this shelter experience was going to be like, boring or busy, and it ended up being neither of those...it was CRAZY! There was no way I could have prepared myself for what ended up happening and thinking back on it now it still seems a bit surreal. There's no way I can really put into words what it was like, but I'll do my best to give an overview of what happened.
Friday was our first day at the shelter, and in the morning we had to wait to find out exactly what time we were being deployed. We got the call at about 9:45 telling us that we had to be at the shelters at noon, so we waited a few more hours and then headed out. I was part of a group of 6 of us who went to Yarmouth, 4 of us went to Eastham, and 3 of us stayed at the house to keep an eye on things there and to possibly be deployed to help clear fallen trees after the storm. The first day at the shelter wasn't very busy, so at that point it felt pretty much the same as the Hurricane Sandy shelter. When we first got there the shelter hadn't opened yet, so we helped set things up in preparation for the first clients. Suzanne and I were the 2 AmeriCorps members chosen to help DART (Disaster Animal Response Team), so that first afternoon we helped set up animal cages and got to play with some of the animals that other volunteers had brought to the shelter. As the evening progressed, the storm got worse and when I looked out the windows I could see the snow being blown all over the place by the strong winds. Clients who didn't want to brave the storm trickled in that evening but the headcount for people who stayed overnight I think was only about 8. The power went out at the school a few times which plunged everything into complete darkness for a few seconds but it came back on almost immediately each time.
We set up sleeping shifts for that night and I was supposed to stay up until 2:30 am to keep an eye on the registration table, but it was pretty quiet so I got to go to sleep at 11:30 instead. When I was laying in my cot trying to fall asleep the power finally went out for good and the generator kicked on, which meant that all of the emergency lights in the school went on, including in the library where we were sleeping, and there was no way to turn them off so we had to sleep with the lights on. I woke up at 6:00 the next morning, and the storm was still raging outside. I started off the day in the DART area again, but then once things started to get busier in the main shelter Suzanne and I were called up there to help with registration. Saturday was the craziest day because once people started coming to the shelter, the flow of people didn't stop all day. From about noon to past 10:00 pm I worked constantly registering clients and it seemed like it would never end. Most of that time the storm was still pretty bad and the governor had put a driving ban into effect the previous day at 4:00 pm, so everyone who was coming to the shelter was being brought by the police, fire department, or ambulance. When it finally slowed down I was so drained and overwhelmed and exhausted that all I wanted to do was go to sleep for a whole day. I went to bed at about 10:30 pm but didn't fall asleep until past midnight because someone was snoring really loudly and keeping me awake. I ended up moving my cot out into the hallway and was finally able to fall asleep.
The next morning, Sunday, I was up at 7:00 am not really knowing what to expect from the coming day. The storm had passed and even though we only got about 8 inches of snow (which is a lot for the Cape but much less than other areas that the storm hit), the strong winds had left 90% of Cape Cod without power, and there were still people coming into the shelter in droves because they had been able to wait out the storm itself but now did not feel safe staying in their homes without electricity or heat. So we were still doing a lot of registration that day, and then on top of that there was the added work of trying to get the people home who did have power back at their houses. The shelter leaders started having periodic meetings with all the clients to give them updates on power being restored and transportation back home. Because so many people had been brought into the shelter by emergency service vehicles, it wasn't simply a matter of people getting back into their cars, so they had to get several buses taking multiple trips a day to start bringing people home. By this point I was getting more and more overwhelmed with registration and asking people the same questions over and over again, so I volunteered to go with one of the buses so I could help people get back into their houses. Since most of the clients were elderly, there was a concern that if their houses were still snowed in they would need help getting to their doors safely. This was probably my favorite part of the experience because I felt like I was really making people happy because I was helping them get home after what I'm sure was a stressful ordeal for everyone involved. I got to meet some great people during the bus ride and help several sweet old ladies walk up icy sidewalks to their houses, and they were so appreciative that it made me feel really good to be able to help. This whole day was almost as busy as the previous day, and I was just as drained when I finally got to go to sleep at around 10:00 pm, with the intention of getting up at 3:30 am to go back to the registration tables.
When I did wake up at 3:30, I found out that one of the clients was suspected of having used some sort of drug, possibly crack, in the staff bathroom which was right next to the library where we were sleeping. Because they didn't know if he was dangerous, they told all of us to just go back to sleep and report back to help again in the morning. So I went back to my cot, but I was nervous for a while every time I heard someone moving around. Jared and Mike had volunteered to stay up and keep watch though, so that made me feel a lot safer.
So I woke up again at 7:00 am, and even though I had gotten more sleep that night than the previous nights, I felt more drained than ever. I was exhausted and constantly stressed, and felt like my patience and ability to interact with people were just about gone. Every day we were at the shelter was harder than the last, and that day, Monday, was by far the hardest. Luckily I was able to help cleaning and breaking down cots, which got me away from the registration table and all of the clients asking questions I didn't know how to answer. I just didn't have the energy or mental capacity to answer any more questions or fill out anymore paperwork. At this point in the day there was still no word on exactly how long we would be staying at the shelter because our house still didn't have power, and it felt like there was no end in sight. We were the only group of volunteers who had been at the shelter the entire time up until that point, most of the Red Cross, DART and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) volunteers had either been relieved or at least gone home to shower. I was severely sleep deprived, my body had been in a constant state of stress, and I hadn't showered or brushed my hair in 4 days. But then around noon, some of the AmeriCorps staff members showed up to help and we found out we would be leaving the shelter at 3:00. I was so happy, and just knowing that there was a set end time gave me the energy to make it through the next 3 hours.
When we finally left, it felt slightly surreal, like my life outside the shelter didn't really exist anymore because I had been there for so long. I was so happy that the stress had been lifted, but also didn't know exactly how to go back to real life. So the first night I just tried not to think about that too hard, and just relaxed as best I could. We had electricity back at our house, but the furnace wasn't working so we still didn't have heat, but I didn't care, I was just glad to be back. There were several trees down in our yard, and one of them had fallen onto the house and broken a window in one of the bedrooms, but all in all the damage could have been much worse, so we were lucky. Our heat came back on the next day so the temperature in the house went back to normal, and we were given 3 days off to recover before we have to go back to our regular service, which is amazing because it's taken me until today to really feel caught up on sleep, let alone everything else I felt like I have to do before going back to our normal routine.
Overall, this was, as someone put it, one of the best and worst experiences of my life. It was incredibly draining, both mentally and physically, but it was also extremely rewarding to know that we were really helping people in a very difficult time. We got so much thanks from the other volunteers and the clients for all of our work, and everyone was very impressed and appreciative. One of the shelter leaders said when we were leaving that other times that AmeriCorps has helped at shelters they didn't make that much of an impression, but this time he really felt like they couldn't have done it without us because we worked so hard and helped so much with the running of the shelter. It felt good to know how much everyone there appreciated us, and even though I hope I don't have to do anything like this again anytime soon, I'm very glad I was able to experience it.
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