By Marianne Zerbe
MnSF VISTA volunteer, Houston, Minn.

“Compassion is the basis of all morality” - Philosopher A. Schopenhauer

Our road field still has a couple ton of roadway in it and, like everyone, we await our turn for debris removal. Our hill road melted away and we discovered a leaky roof by standing in a puddle on the first floor of our three-story farmhouse. We still notice little things, new things each day. For instance today on the way into Houston, my husband, John, pointed out a white bucket 20 feet up in a tree indicating the depth and ferocity of the water on storm night.

Our Katrina is what it is being called. I find that an apt moniker. I gutted homes in New Orleans last February. The smells were the same, that mixture of sewage, dead things, human garbage and chemicals. Even the buildings look similar with the colored spray paint, indicative of the status of the home and the number of pet deaths. I have conversed with Rushfordians who have the Midwest version of Katrina Cough, a rattling chest cough that won’t go away from breathing dried sludge while walking on lawns, removing debris, or road dust.

The terrible loss of property and possessions is the same, searching through homes and business for things that are still usable, remembering one more precious item or scrap of information forever gone. The frustration of working with slow-moving bureaucracies and discovering that your life has become some else’s political football is the same. After two years New Orleans is still waiting on FEMA checks or trailers and help from government agencies.

But the similarity that I wish to address is the generosity of volunteers. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), whose mission is to educate on public safety, environmentalist and human needs, more than 1.1 million people have responded to the urgency of the situation in New Orleans. Citizens from all walks of life, whatever faith tradition or economic base, have provided more than 14 million service hours in “what is the largest volunteer response to a disaster in the nation’s history.” It is the compassionate outpouring of neighbors near and far that continues to provide urgent help and support for Katrina victims. The people whose homes I worked on, agencies providing food and shelter for workers, all state that it is the help of compassionate strangers that is bringing New Orleans back again.

This compassionate volunteerism was and is playing out in Southeastern Minnesota in lieu of the flood of Ô07. Right after the storm, citizens, many who suffered losses of their own, started community cleanup. Whatever equipment was available, whatever situation needed attention, citizens worked with each other implementing rescues, opening roads, restoring power, checking on neighbors, or providing food and water.

Bird, bee and ant swarms have no leader, working together independently in support of the colony. Studies show individual swarm members respond to their neighbor’s information and wisdom, taking cues from their behavior. Similar to Swarm Theory, individual citizens worked with neighbors doing what was necessary for the greater good.

Then there are the volunteers from afar who just show up. I hear stories of strangers arriving at a site, some with their own tools, to whatever is needed. At Montini Hall in Rushford a couple from Mississippi came to work for us. She helped coordinate volunteers in her area after Katrina, using colored pins on a map to mark the states volunteers came from. Minnesota was full. This is her way of thanking us.

Since Katrina there is nation wide recognition of the urgency of incorporating volunteers into disaster relief. Essayist John Ruskin wrote, “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.” It is this outpouring of compassionate volunteerism, home grown and otherwise, bringing their support and spirit that is helping us rebuild our lives in the Southeast. Thank you for bringing hope. We honor your participation and sacrifice.