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22 | November 8, 2018 | The New Lenox Patriot LIFE & ARTS
newlenoxpatriot.com
Volunteer provides relief after Hurricanes Michael, Florence
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
In the last month, New
Lenox resident Steve Wise
has been called to help with
relief efforts not once, but
twice.
After Hurricanes Florence
and Michael devastated parts
of the Carolinas and the Florida
panhandle, respectively,
the Red Cross volunteer traveled
to disaster zones to help
organize and run the day-today
operations of multiple
shelters set up to house people
displaced by the storms.
Wise had hardly returned
from a trip out East in late
September to help people displaced
by Hurricane Florence
when another storm — Hurricane
Michael — threatened
the southern states.
Hurricane Florence
The shelter Wise helped
run at Wake Forest University
in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina was not as big as
others he has worked at, as it
had a capacity of about 600
people, but he said many of
the same tasks, challenges
and situations met him an the
other volunteers each day.
Running a shelter is a bit
like running a small city, he
said, with people coming in,
completing paperwork and
medical assessments, finding
clothing and beds for them,
and coordinating showers
and food.
Between Sept. 11-21, he
was doing all of that as a Red
Cross volunteer with a megashelter
leadership team of
about eight people.
The most evacuees they
had in one night was about
450, many of whom were
bussed in from hard-hit towns
in the area. Many of them arrived
with just the clothes on
their back and maybe a handful
of possessions — depending
on what they had time to
grab.
It also meant that many
people had to leave their
prescription medications and
medical equipment behind,
so Wise said in addition to
having doctors and mental
health professionals at the
shelter, there were pharmacists
who were able to dispense
medicine for people.
“Oftentimes people are
showing up with very little,”
Wise said, “so their clothing
is not much. They could be
leaving some of their medical
things behind. It could be
anything from prescriptions
to wheel chairs to you name
it.
“It all depends on how
quickly they had to evacuate
their home.”
Hurricane Michael
Soon after returning from
providing relief to victims
of Hurricane Florence, Wise
turned around and headed to
Florida where Hurricane Michael
wreaked havoc on the
panhandle. Once there, he
helped troubleshoot and improve
various shelters from
the Red Cross base in Tallahassee.
His team visited shelters
serving anywhere from 30
people to 500 people, but
Wise said while driving between
the shelters he was
faced with devastation like
nothing he had ever seen before.
“I’ve been involved with
tornados before and things
like that but the power of this
storm is just amazing what
it’s done to the areas I came
across,” he said.
The Category 4 storm hit
Florida with wind speeds of
155 miles per hour, just 1
mph short of a Category 5
designation.
“The wind just basically
destroyed things... “You
would just look in awe at [the
buildilngs], and you just can’t
believe what has happened or
what’s in front of your eyes,”
Wise said. “This is probably
the hardest deployment I’ve
had in terms of that regard.
Basically I was on the front
lines all the time and you just
saw the sheer destruction that
Mother Nature wrecked on
the Panhandle of Florida.”
Despite the destruction he
has witnessed since becoming
a volunteer in 2015, Wise
returns again and again when
disaster strikes and encourages
others to volunteer to help
out their fellow man as well.
“It’s a great experience because
you get to see just the
heart of a volunteer,” Wise
said. “If you haven’t done
any volunteer work yourself I
would just encourage you to.
It’s just amazing what these
people will do. They stop
their lives and go help people
who need their help.”
During disaster relief, volunteers
do whatever they can
to get people the supplies
they need to get through their
stay, Wise said, which could
last long past the storm if
roads are not cleared or water
and electricity are not back in
service.
“One of then questions you
get asked constantly when
these thing happen is, ‘When
do I get to go home?’” Wise
said.
Oftentimes, he said, the
New Lenox resident Steve Wise had a busy couple of
months, first volunteering in North Carolina in September
during Hurricane Florence and then flying to Florida in
October to aid those affected from Hurricane Michael.
Photos Submitted
best thing volunteers can to
do help is just be a shoulder
to cry on and sit with them.
“You have people that their
life has been turned upside
down, and you do everything
that you can to try to comfort
them the best you can,” Wise
said. “One thing is just taking
time to stop with them
and talk to them, ask them
questions or just get to know
them.”
In addition to getting to
know many of the people in
the shelter, Wise said volunteers
oftentimes build lasting
friendships among themselves
as well.
“You band together and
you do your best to provide
the services that people
need,” he said, “and a lot of
people end up touching your
heart, so you do everything to
touch the hearts of evacuees.”
Pictured are photos Steve Wise took in Florida of the wreckage from Hurricane Michael.