Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
The United States Special Forces are trained to do this. It comes naturally to many animals. It’s an instinctive way to survive. Deal with it. Improvise. Adapt. and Overcome…. and ask for help.
Priority One: Take care of yourself first
If you are injured, you will not be able to help others and could make things worse for everyone.
Helping others in new disaster….and in everyday activities.
If in your daily life you are practicing skills that help you be efficient, technologically literate, or healthy…then when things happen, you already have the skills. Stay in shape, know how to use the apps in your phone, and volunteer in the soup kitchen. When disaster strikes, the ordinary skills become what is needed in the extraordinary situations, except people can die if someone can’t do them.
Get trained in advance. Don’t be an unprepared volunteer using limited resources.
If you show up and you do not know how to help, you use up precious and potentially scarce water, food, fuel, beds, and medicines. You become one more person to rescue or take care of. Train in advance and sign up as part of a team ready to go. Ask your Red Cross or other local agencies how to get ready to be a helper, not a burden.
Be aware of those around you. Many have less strength than you and they may not be emotionally prepared, physically strong, or have logistical support in place.
Be a leader and improvise. God’s Katrina Kitchen is one example. After Hurricane Katrina, along this Mississippi coast, 90 miles of destruction occurred. One man and a pick up truck and a grill and some hamburgers donated by his church, rapidly evolved into a massive volunteer effort where students and families drove down with donations and some stayed and pitched in.
God’s Katrina Kitchen
One person’s innovation and 2000 people were fed and clothed each day during the recovery.
Gillio Family photos shared with permission.
Solutions don’t have to be made more difficult. Just act and try to make a difference.