Taking the Weather with You

So apparently, despite my best efforts to hide from bullshit weather, it manages to find me wherever I might hide. This time I brought tornadoes to Texas.

Sorry.

That reputation, of course, being guns. Lots of guns.

In wake of this disaster (and the growing possibility that I may, in fact, be cursed) I went to help out with the relief effort. There, I learned a couple of things. First and foremost, of course, that this is still definitely not New Jersey.

Maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise, but I'm a cynic. Most of these people are goddamned nice. And very, very religious. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It's just not really the New Jersey way of doing things. We're more likely to hate everyone and everything and blame all our problems on the government. The rest of these people... well, Texas lives up to its reputation.

I've also learned that not even something as apparently simple as disaster relief is bogged down with bureaucratic stupidity. They seemed really organized (they being some faith-based relief group I'd never heard of that I felt a little weird signing on with, but sure, whatever, I'll help wherever when shit's bad) and they seemed like they wanted to help.

And then they handed out these work order forms. We went through this whole little orientation thing on how to deal with debris and where to put it and organize it and how to help, and then were told that we'd mostly be going around and talking to people today. Talking. And handing them paperwork.

Seriously?

"And this is where the tarp would go, if my house still existed."

I don't even like paperwork when everything is good. These people just had their homes thrown halfway across town by a tornado. And we're walking up to the door with a work order form that says 'hey if you need some tarps or something just let us know and we'll get it to you like tomorrow or something.' And this assumes their house is even still there at all. Several were just gone.

Meanwhile, there's a tree through what's left of the front of his house and he's sitting there with a box of stuff he dragged out today without getting crushed by the collapsing roof. I don't think he gives a crap about said tarp or the papers that go with it. Everyone--everyone--declined aid from the stupid paperwork. They don't need help later. They need help now.

So after about 30 minutes of wandering about doing fuckall, we threw the papers into the nearest truck and got to work actually doing something. Still wearing the shirts for this organization that, as far as I could tell, wasn't actually doing anything. Maybe our little team wasn't doing what we were supposed to. Maybe sitting down and helping one or two people down the street wasn't really as effective as getting everyone on the street's number and assessment.

But you know what? It sure felt more productive. Handing bullshit paperwork to people who just lost everything does nothing more than promise aid that may never even show up. Why should I entrust this organization I don't even know (but totally gave me a free shirt, so they're probably okay) to help these people who are looking to us, the volunteers walking down the street, for help?

And, in true Jersey fashion, I wouldn't. If I wanted to push papers, I'd get a normie job. The only reason I walked about with that stupid paper for 30 minutes is because the team leader thought that maybe, somehow, we could help by doing that. 

We didn't. I just hope all the other volunteer teams (of which there were many) tossed out the bureaucracy, too.