by a Red Cross volunteer
This has been the most heartfelt experience of
my life.
I was receiving the feelings that I wanted to go to Florida to
help with the Hurricanes but didn’t know how that could happen.
I thought of driving down with some generators, food and
clothing but I felt that they would not let me in to the areas
that were hit hard.
I ask the universe how could I go to Florida to help. I had this
heart pulling that I needed to be there. This is the first time
that when hurricanes are directed to Florida that I had these
feelings that I had to go.
I use to live on the west coast of Florida and went to high
school there. So my heart is always there during their stressful
times. One day in September I was in an office that I volunteer
with and a fax came in that they were looking for Red Cross
volunteers to help with the disasters. Another lady and I said
we would go. So I got on the phone to see what we had to do.
This person took our names and said they would call me back.
When I got the message in September that I would have the chance
to go to Florida to help with the disasters I was ecstatic.
We waited for a couple of weeks for the call and nothing
happened so I called again and the person that had taken my call
was no longer there and they said they were having classes that
we would have to take before we could be deployed. We signed up
that day and our first class was on a Sunday.
The Red Cross has an introduction class and then different
classes on different phases of disaster training. We went to all
of those and were ready to go—we thought. And then we had to
have a doctors appointment to get papers signed about our health
so that we could be deployed.
The other lady doesn’t go to a doctor either and she had to find
one at a clinic. I couldn’t get an appointment until October
3rd. I wanted to be on my way south now.
And then I got the information again that all happens for a
reason and to trust. If I was suppose to go I would, and if I
wasn’t I wouldn’t. That doesn’t mean you don’t do anything. I
did everything I could to make it happen. Then my part was
through.
The doctor was very pleased that I was going and signed the
papers. I turn them into the Red Cross office here in town and
the man at the desk calls into National. A lady at National
didn’t know if I should go. Dave gave her my doctors number and
she called and talked to him. Then I had to talk to her and she
finally gave her permission for me to go.
There were many times during this operation that I could have
gotten angry with the system, national level and so on, but I
didn’t. I knew that the process was teaching me something about
understanding, timing and patience. I didn’t have my bag packed
because I didn’t know when I was going but in my mind I knew
what I was taking and I had called people that would need to
know I wouldn’t be here for awhile.
The Red Cross had 2000 centers opened at one time from Florida
up through Pennsylvania with devastation from winds, flooding,
rain etc. We were told that this is the first time the National
Red Cross has called all the Red Cross offices for help.
I was hoping for Florida. I would have gone some place else, but
Florida was where my heart was.
I got the call from the Red Cross Office to come in and sign
papers and we were shipping out the next day.
We arrived in Orlando, Florida on October 9th. We had training
the next day in the relief center they had opened there that
took care of all of Florida. Our Red Cross office here had done
a very good job of training us.
We were shipped out the next day to Vero Beach, Florida on the
East coast of Florida. This was about 25 miles above where the
main eye of Jeanne came a-shore.
The first night there we were put up for the night in a youth
camp. Sometimes directions were not exactly clear, signs were
down and we spent a while finding the youth camp in the dark.
When we got there we couldn’t find the cabin that had a name on
it that we were suppose to look for. We walked around for
awhile. I was ready to sleep in the van that we were using. We
had gone to the store and bought a towel and a pillow. Just
about that time some people showed up and directed us to the
cabin.
Now the fun began. There were 7 bunk beds and only a couple of
top bunks were available in this cabin. I wasn’t for sure if I
wanted to sleep there because of the climb up on boards that
don’t work with the bottom of the feet. In the end we decided to
make the beds with sheets they had, get our showers and climb
into bed. I had help getting up with my flip flops and then I
dropped them on the floor. I should have kept them at the foot
of the bed because it meant I couldn’t get back down until
someone woke up in the morning.
The beds were not soft but I was tired and ready for bed so my
body really did ok. I did pray that I wouldn’t have to get up
during the night to go the bathroom.
When I woke up a lady was in the bathroom—I was praying she
would be out soon—and when she came out I ask her for help in
getting down. It all worked perfect. The next night we were
given a room at a hotel on the beach that had a lot of damage on
the outside and some inside damage. They had opened up for Red
Cross workers, construction and electrical workers that were
there from other places. The beds were great, the shower
wonderful, the toilet and sink worked. There was a TV, microwave
and small refrigerator in the room. The elevator didn’t always
work, but the climb to the 3rd floor was great for our legs.
What a blessing this room was.
We were right on the beach. I have been on
beaches in different parts of the US, and have never heard the
ocean like this. It was very loud. We kept the door opened when
we got home at night for awhile to air the room out because of
the mildew smell and to hear the ocean. It was warm, we had the
ocean smell and the wonderful ocean frequencies.
It was 5 days before we could go down to the beach. The erosion
was very serious, the debris was dangerous with metal, glass,
wood and other objects in it. This beach had had trees on it and
they were torn down with stumps left. We learned to leave the
Red Cross center and go to the motel first and then down to the
beach and we could walk for awhile before it got dark. Then we
would go someplace to eat and sometimes we ate in the room so we
could hear the ocean and be near the energy.
A company with dump trucks started bringing in dump loads of
sand to put on the areas of the beach that had all the trash and
they simply covered it up with about 10 feet or more of sand. It
was a huge operation. This is land that is sea level and there
is no place to dump a lot of huge trash piles. They were
composting trees into wood chips.
This area of Florida from Orlando going East and down has a lot
of swamp land. Highways are built on this and they have call
boxes every few miles to call for help if your car breaks down.
You cannot get into the center of the strips or off on the grass
areas of the sides of the highway. There is no turning around.
You have to go to the next town.
They have a river called the Indian River which is very large.
It is between the town of Vero Beach and the beach. Some of the
homes in this area were hit by the river and the hurricane. Some
were not. There were areas that were not touched and others were
devastated. It was interesting that hurricanes are kind of like
tornadoes. Some streets over from a heavy damaged area would not
be touched and the next street would have damage.
There were also tornadoes in these hurricanes.
Interesting that hurricanes have tornadoes. It would be
interesting to find out how long this has been going on. When I
use to live in Florida on the west coast, we didn’t have
tornadoes. What happened? I would know if a tornado came, since
I moved to Florida from Oklahoma and we had tornadoes. In fact
my parents home was destroyed by one with them and my sister in
the home.
Our weather is so different in places in this country now. Here
in the Northwest, we now have some humidity which before Mt. St.
Helen blew in 1980 we hardly ever had. Which I thought was a
blessing since I had lived in the southern part of the US with a
lot of humidity.
In going to Florida, I met some of my spiritual family. I worked
with the Family Services part of the center. We interviewed
people and gave them money to help them out. There were quite a
few of us at tables and when the people came in they were
briefed for addresses and took chairs and we then ask them to
come to our table and we communicated with them. In this process
I met so many people that were part of my past-life history.
They were whites that had moved to Florida, there were Florida
crackers—people that were born in Florida—blacks and Mexicans. I
felt so close to all of them except for about 5 people that I
interviewed.
I hugged them all, men, women and children. They were my people.
The most polite were the blacks and the crackers. They live a
whole different life-style. We would talk about the winds,
rains, the mold, which was terrible. Some had to leave their
homes for 5 days. When they came back every thing was damp and
full of mold. The electricity was off so the food in the
refrigerators were spoiled, mildew and mold were on walls,
clothing, carpets and bedding. Water came in through broken
windows and around windows through the seals, from the faucet
under the edge of the roof, some of the roofs were blown off,
some lifted and water came down on the ceiling which, when water
soaked fell down into the home. Even if their home wasn’t
damaged there was plenty of stress.
The grapefruit crops were ruined for this year. The fruit was
blown off the trees and some of the trees were blown down. Some
of the trees were very old. They have lost some of the
grapefruit industries in this area for a long time. The packing
houses are closed, the people that work in that kind industry
have no jobs and probably won’t for a long time. There are no
other fruit jobs available in the area. These people don’t know
of any other kind of work. Kind of like our lumberjacks in our
area. They would have to retrain and that means the state of
Florida will have to do that and at this time there is no plans
for this. Some of these people do not speak English or very
little. Some of the education skills are very limited.
I found out how the insurance companies work with the people,
some of them have not even come out to the homes since the first
hurricane. FEMA helped some and some did not get help. The FEMA
hot line was continually busy. I don’t know why they didn’t open
up twice as many lines as they originally started with. By the
time I interviewed the people they still hadn’t gotten through
to FEMA. Some of the people didn’t want to work with them
because they are government.
At one time the Red Cross was $35 million down. These centers
cost a lot of money to open. They have to coordinate shelters,
food, beds, clothing etc. The best way to help is through
donations of money.
I certainly have a different view of the Red Cross after what I
have seen. You hear stories about different organizations, but I
can tell you that this one needs your help.
I left Florida with a sense of meeting people that needed help
and I was allowed to help them. I thank God for this experience.
I would do it again in a heart beat.
I will also be helping my local Red Cross with people who have
fires. There is a fire in my county, which is around every 72
hours—except around the holidays when there are a lot more with
candles and Xmas trees.
Your local Red Cross can use your help with different things. In
this county the Red Cross needs help with going out to fires and
helping the families with a gift pack, stuffed animal for the
children, finding them a place to stay for the night and then
the office takes over to help them the next days of their lives,
with clothing, food, a dwelling and all the other help they
need. If you have some extra time, call your local Red Cross and
sign up to take classes.
Now for the spiritual part of this story and what I learned.
When I got to Florida and to the assigned area, I knew why it
had taken so long to get there from when I was first contacted.
The timing was very important. It was everything in the divine
plan.
First I had to hear about the Red Cross and the chance to go.
Then my part was to call and get the training dates and then
follow up with taking the classes. Then I had to wait for the
call, to go. Now during this time everything was being set up
for me.
I had first wanted to go to Clearwater, Florida on the west
coast, when Hurricane Charlie slammed into the land. Then I
learned that there were different chemicals being used there
that weren’t good for the body. They use many sprays in Florida
on crops and the ground that are not good for people. As I
waited, hurricane Ivan and Frances went through and then
hurricane Jenne. I was receiving e-mails from a person in
Florida near the Peace river, which was very polluted and other
things going on and that article was in the October issue of The
Open Line newspaper.
So when I finally got to Florida and got Vero Beach as my
destination, it was in divine order. First this is where my
past-life people were, we didn’t have the pesticide problem
because that phase of the hurricanes was over, I had to have a
place to stay that would be easy on my body and that was
provided the second night there for the rest of the time. I
purchased Vitamin C and Potassium when I arrived in Vero Beach.
I did not take any of my supplements with me because I didn’t
want them messed up by the airlines. My guidance told me that my
body was in good shape through the supplements I have been
taking and Vitamins C and Potassium would be enough for the time
I would be there.
Then the disaster center in Vero Beach would provide me with the
place to meet all of my past-life family and what a reunion it
was. They would tell me their story and they would cry and I
would shed tears with them. They never knew when I told them
that we were brother and sister and family what it really meant.
The two old black men that I hugged and joked with never knew
how close we really were. I loved them all, truly loved them.
When I hugged them all I felt the family ties. I will never
forget the feeling of it. I wanted to be with all of them for
the rest of my life. We had been in many past lives before, some
more than other. Some were Egypt, some Africa, some the US and
the war that split our country apart—the union and confederate
armies.
It had to be the right timing to get all of the people together
when I would be there. What a computer database there must be in
the universe. Then I had to fly on certain aircraft for lessons.
When we were flying home from Minneapolis-St. Paul, we got home
and couldn’t land because the pilot said his instruments
wouldn’t work with our International Airport's instruments and
the cloud cover was too much. We were going in for a landing and
then the pilot started climbing and he kept going. He said
something about flying around and waiting for a landing. But I
knew we were going straight and I thought; we will be over the
middle of the state before long. And then the pilot said we were
flying to Seattle and wait out the low visibility.
When we got to Seattle we had to stay on the plane for awhile
and then they said we could get off for awhile. They refueled
and pretty soon we were in the air to go back home. Of course
what we can do now is call on our cell phones and find out what
is going on. It seems other NorthWest planes were landing at our
local airport and other planes were landing.
My husband was in the airport and they weren’t telling them
anything. Pretty soon the flight number was taken off the screen
at the airport. My husband went to the ticket counter to find
out what happened and finally got some answers. When the flight
disappeared from the screen, many people were upset. Another
lesson for the other people too and the airport.
My husband didn’t have the cell phone turned on so I called my
sister who brought it up on the computer to see what was going
on. So another grand lesson was learned.
I was saying the Gayatri Mantra so I knew that everything would
be ok. I say it every day. This mantra has been said for over
5000 years. (I have copies if you want one.)
Before I left I had some friends that said prayers for my
journey. One friend gave me the saying that I used everyday
while I was gone.
You say the words out loud so they have a vibration that goes
out into the universe.
“I call on the Holy Archangels of the East, the West, the North
and the South to come and hear my plea to protect me from the
seen and unseen. You stand facing the East first and say the
saying. Then you face West and say the saying, then the North
and say the saying and then South. You can also ask to be given
something psychical to show you it is done. This part I didn’t
have to do because I knew it was being done. I also called on
Sai Baba to protect me from the seen and unseen and whatever
else I wanted to say. How powerful out higher selves and our
connections are.
If you ever get the opportunity to help the Red Cross, avail
yourself of this.
