BarbaraHudson's Journal: Flood disaster relief - hard but fulfilling.

Disaster relief - hard but fulfilling. We've had major floods that have left thousands homeless. The public response has been simply unbelievable.

I volunteer at the On Rock food bank Monday mornings, helping prepare food boxes for more than 200 families. As we were finishing up Monday, a gentleman showed up who lives on Ile Bizard, and like many others living there, had been under a mandatory evacuation order because flood waters were several feet deep.

The city provided emergency shelter, but not for his dog (a pitbull), so the dog had been sleeping in the car. Realizing that most people would be reluctant to help because of the dog breed, I took them both in, and the only problem with the pitbull is she likes me so much that I have lots of scratches on my arm. It will probably be another week before they can move back. I'm okay with that.

Tuesday evening the regular volunteers got an email asking us to come in because it was literally "Christmas in May." Sunday (today) is the first day that I haven't been helping everyone schlep tons and tons of donations from trucks and the donation bins we had put outside so people could drop the food off quickly, which at one point were filling up as fast as we emptied them.

The response of the entire West Island community has been - well, you'd have to see it to believe it. Prepared meals to be distributed to the displaced - a lot of them donated by restaurants who are, together with the donations to food banks, feeding thousands of people, plus emergency crews and the military, 3 times a day.

All the extra hands that showed up to help made a huge difference - often, it was entire families, including little children. And yes, those kids were NOT in the way at all - they were able to help with things like sorting and moving 15-packs of toilet paper, freeing the adults to take care of heavier items. And they never lacked for LOTS of supervision.

I just got a text saying I won't be needed until tomorrow morning, so I have time to write this. This disaster has brought out the best in people, and I've gotten to meet and work with many of them.

The flood waters might be receding, but it's not just the people who were flooded out who need help. Businesses have closed, and some may not reopen, the loss is so great. People will be thrown out of work. Some who are moving back home don't have a working fridge, stove, or microwave, and what food was left behind has to be thrown in a dumpster, along with furniture, clothes, children's toys, carpeting, floors and walls ...

The state of emergency will be lifted at noon, but the military will be staying, and people will continue to help each other out, because that's what needs to happen, and West Islanders will continue doing amazing things.

There is one sour note. A waitress took a couple of days off to help out her neighbors, and was suspended. She's now looking for another job. Hopefully one of the many restaurants who repeatedly donated so much will realize the value of such a worker.

PS: Happy Mother's Day.