MARY ANNE SCHULTZ Katrina volunteer

The registered nurse and former Youngstown resident dispensed tetanus and hepatitis shots to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Here are some of her thoughts and feelings about the two weeks and two days she spent in Waveland, Miss.
Invitation to help: "It was the Mississippi Board of Nursing's urgent message 'expect conditions to be primitive' that drew me to Mississippi. After all, I thought, how many 'extra nurses' would leave an RSVP for that ominous invitation? I purchased camping gear, took beginning disaster training and made my arrangements."
Second thoughts: "As I drove along I-10 west from Gulfport to Waveland, amidst reports of the outskirts of Rita reaching it (not to mention that wildfire in an open field close to my lane), I wondered if the phrase 'don't volunteer for anything' is mentioned with good reason."
Sharing quarters: "The Mississippi Health Department set up in an abandoned warehouse on the north side of Gulfport. Five of us, men and women, shared the kitchen for sleeping quarters (near the one bathroom we knew would work), which doubled as a strategy or 'situation room.' I threw my sleeping bag on one of those little, flimsy, flat cots you see on TV in Red Cross shelters. They squeak if you sneeze at them."
On conditions: "Lights were on much of the time somewhere in your field of vision (I slept with my regulation dark California sunglasses on); low whispers nearly all the time; not much in the way of privacy. Showers on an 18-wheeler arrived a few days into the experience. They worked most days. We did have air conditioning. Otherwise, in the unspeakable heat, I would have been a casualty myself. Food, when available, was worse than terrible. But, the convenience stores were starting to open up so cold soft drinks and some form of carbohydrate purchased there sustained me."
Searching for ice: "I was grateful ice was pretty available, but you had to be on the lookout all the time for it. Our vaccines needed to be kept cool and somehow we managed. In terms of resources ... if it wasn't bolted down, or maybe couldn't be boxed up like oxygen, it was rationed."
Thankful people: "Our clients were so grateful, so humble, so accepting, how could I not fall in love with this state and its people?"
Out of sight: "I never saw a cat. They said a lone seagull flew overhead one day. Even the birds and the bees headed for higher ground. So did the ants and mosquitoes, so I didn't need the DEET."
Land of Oz: "There were several 'Wizard of Oz homes' that had somehow twirled around up in the air, landed far from their origin (you had to see it to believe it) on railroad tracks that looked like an unwound safety pin or paper clip. It was as if a home from, say Midlothian and Southern Boulevards, twirled up and around and landed on the tracks down somewhere close to the B & amp;O station."
No blame game: "Interestingly enough, the Mississippians were not full of blame. They didn't point the finger at any particular form of government except FEMA, which universally was judged 'in absentia' or 'MIA,' and those are kind terms. Holding my emotions in check, I thought instead of the message of the people of Mississippi who ... had hung huge signs down from the freeway overpasses proclaiming 'thanks y'all.' It made me smile."
Source: Mary Anne Schultz