| Author |
Message |
James Guerrero
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 10:27 pm: | |
Speaking about the experience of trauma at a catastrophe site, I remember well my first catastrophe - Hurricane Andrew. I was assigned as a trainee to Mr. Greg Kingsley. We went to my first loss, and I thought at the time, that this was just unimaginable. How could I explain it to anybody what I was seeing, and would anybody believe me? A well-heeled, casually dressed man was standing outside his "once" home near his beautiful red sports car. (I never did understand why his car wasn't damaged, too. Perhaps it was a rental.) This man was the Vice-President of Burger King based in Miami. His house had a front door that you could walk through. His house had high ceilings and so I was deceived to find by standing in the interior foyer that sections of his roof were completely missing. I did not perceive this from the outside because I only saw his high front facade. Yet, from the moment that we got off the turnpike in Kendall, how could I not expect that his house was damaged, since every house on the way to his was a pile of broken debris. I was in some sort of denial in particular in front of his house, and I could feel that I did not want to walk in. I followed Greg's lead instead. Standing next to the insured, he pulled out a cigarette first thing, I remember so well. I did not smoke ever in my life. I did not have anything to pull out, and I just wanted to close my eyes to the surrounding debris. We were in the foyer looking up at the sun light. The rafters and trusses were visible, twisted, broken and dangerous. Whole sections of roofing were hanging down. Whole sections of drywall ceiling was hanging down. We saw clothes, furniture, papers, toys, foods, foliage mixed together in separate places. We saw whole interior walls and panels pushed around and twisted. We saw whole patio doors dangling by a corner. We saw high jagged and twisted metal 2X6 studs with no drywall attached. Ceiling insulation was blown all around. Everything that should not be in a clean swimming pool was in the swimming pool. His house was completely lost and so was his contents. In hindsight I now understand why the wife usually does not meet the adjuster at the loss site. It is usually too much for her to bear. The longer Greg stayed and scoped this site, the more depression set into to me. I remember thinking that I had made a mistake wanting to be a catastrophe adjuster, and that I was going to be looking for another job. Here I am ten years later thinking about that day. I already know that if I were to go Manhattan and see the destruction that I would be stricken again, as I have been stricken by every catastrophe that I have worked since Hurricane Andrew. The only difference is that I do not try to deny what I see today, but accept it, by way of accepting a pitiful situation. I am pitiful sometimes. Once there was a black lady who sat on her doorstep in front of her house, completely destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, who said, when I arrived and walked up to her to introduce myself, "I am pitiful, I am just pitiful." At that time, I did not understand what she meant. Now, I do; she meant that she was pitiful. |
Gale Hawkins (Gale)
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 7:26 pm: | |
Tom you are right about an over supply of workers according to the press and it seems now tourist are showing up to see the site. I have never walked up to an auto accident if a crowd had already gathered. It is nothing compared to what you have seen but at the age of 15 we were combining down a little all but closed gravel road and a very bad car accident occurred. The state trooper said it looked like somehow the young guy had gotten the old Olds up to 70 MPH and hit a drain and lost control. Seeing it happen was very disturbing and especially for my 10 year old brother because the guy was finally thrown from the car where he landed on the left side of the road and we found his brain in the side ditch on the right side of the road. It is as clear as yesterday when something like the WTC terrorist strike occurs.
I feel so bad for the ones suffering directly because of the crime a few but if I had known what I do now I would have fought the temptation to watch any coverage on TV or the Internet. |
Tom Toll (Tom)
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 3:12 pm: | |
I, like many of you would like to go to NY to assist. As I understand it, there are more workers than needed. Everyone wants to help that has any care, love or emotion in them. For many years I was an aviation adjuster and member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators. For years I saw horrendous sights of wreckage and strewn bodies. My last year as an aviation adjuster was in 1980. I owned my own company and was on the way to the Little Rock Airport when I heard a conversation from a pilot to approach control, at then, Adams Field. I had a nav/com radio in my car, allowing me to listen to flight conversations. A Doctor and his wife were on their way from Jonesboro, AR to Little Rock so that his wife could have dental surgery and did not want to turn back. It was very, very foggy. From the N number of the plane, I felt I might know the pilot and his wife. The conversation was that of distress and fear, as the Doctor did not possess an IFR (Instrument flight rules) rating. He was in fog and could not get his bearing and was experiencing vertigo, (spatial disorientation) and was losing control of the plane. I was near a golf club and heard a crash. I immediately went toward the crash sound and after 10 minutes of looking ran into the club manager who was the first to find the wreckage. He was sick, very sick, but he loaned me a golf cart and told me where to go. I grabbed my camera and headed that direction. I found the wreckage in short order. The 172 Cessna had spun into a very large oak tree, destroying the aircraft. I found the Doctor and his wife some 100 to 150 feet in front of the wreckage. They were horribly dismembered, body parts scattered all over. After finding the head of the Doctor, I knew my worst fears had come to fruition. It was indeed my friend and his wife. I had seen many bodies for almost 20 years, but that accident scene put an end to my career of aircraft adjusting. I experienced horrible nightmares and could not kick that scene from my mind. I had to take off for over a month and sought counseling to try to get over that horrible scene. I always thought I was a tough guy, but found out that I was not. Counseling allowed me to accept that accident. Without the counseling I am not sure I would have survived.
Having seen the scenes of people jumping out of the WRC windows, rather than burn alive brought back that 1980 feeling. How in Gods name can a human being do that to innocent people. I just cannot grasp that type of person. If there truly is a devil, it rose to strike us on September 11, 2001. Now we must do everything in our power to make sure something like this never happens again. I have four daughters, a stepdaughter, stepson, and thirteen grandchildren. I have deep concern for their futures. I have done my thing and am ready, but my kids arent. Let us all strive to love each other and to work together to make the free world a beautiful place to call home.
For those of you who wish to go and help, go, but be prepared and learn to pray a lot. As much as I would like to go, my mind tells me not to, for fear of emotional distress. But those that can handle it, go and help. My thoughts will be with you. |
mark (Olderthendirt)
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 3:01 pm: | |
Amen! |
Ghostbuster (Ghostbuster)
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 2:10 pm: | |
Look at it this way and see if it makes sense.
We're members of God's cleanup squad. We're kinda like the guys with shovels and brooms coming behind the elephant parade. When the Diety makes a storm, we come in and help the poor souls try to put their lives back together. If you believe in living by and on faith, we will be sent to where we are needed for a particular purpose. If God wants others to go to New York, then we will be needed for some other task.
We're not angels...yet. But, we'll get there soon enough. Instead of wings, we've got pick-ups and ladders to get us up there. |
Todd Summers
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 1:35 pm: | |
Sign me up ! |
Jim Flynt (Jimflynt)
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 1:10 pm: | |
Todd, like many others, I feel the same way you do in wanting to help the victims of the World Trade Center disaster.
Perhaps we could explore the idea of putting together a group of CADO volunteers to travel to New York City to assist with the debris removal and search for bodies. The best part is we wouldn't have to be BI experts to help in that or other similar charitable tasks.
No pay, but what a wonderful feeling of doing something unselfishly important for others while exhibiting our patriotic love for this wonderful country we all live in. And who knows, we might even hear of some claims handling opportunities at the same time.
I'm game if you or others feel the same way. |
Todd Summers
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 12:43 pm: | |
As I watched the second tower collapse, Dan Rather said only," There are no words that can describe what we are seeing.". The camera panned the skyline that was entirely engulfed in smoke,dust,ash and debris. I was literally in shock. The unspeakable image flooded my silent living room and I swear that I heard...no, felt, the screams of the dying in my mind. I have prayed more than usual in the past two weeks. I have flown the American flag at my home and on my vehicles. I have donated to the funds set up to aid the families of the victims.
I do not feel like this is enough. I want to really help! I want to go there! I am a catastrophe adjuster! I did not know if I had the right experience to help. Then the standby calls started coming in. I said yes to all of them. Perhaps I CAN help, after all, I am an intelligent professional. I can adapt to change. I learn quickly. I can deal with a wide range of classes from Joe Six-pack to Mr Boardroom. I wear a tie more often than I wear a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle.
Then I was disheartened by the postings on this site specifically discouraging adjusters from accepting assignments to this event. But I then became even more disheartened to learn that these posters were correct. I am not qualified to work complex BI and commercial claims, and not only could it be damaging to my career and pocketbook, but it could do more harm than good to the people who I would be trying to help.
Perhaps there is a GA or other equally competent adjuster or team that could use some type of help, and perhaps I could help in that type of scenario. Or perhaps there will be enough claims coming in on Condo-owners or tenant policies. We will see.
Of course in this profession, the money is important, but the other part has never been more in the forefront and that is the desire to help the people affected. I want to help. I need to help. |
Linda Asberry (Linda)
| | Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2001 - 9:27 am: | |
I remember as a child hearing my father say our evening prayer and it always ended with "please keep our soldiers safe on the battlefields."
That was said during the Korean Conflict. It has never touched me as much as it has in the past days because now we don't know where the battlefields are. I knew where they were during the Vietnam War--I had a husband and my only brother there at the same time. I knew where they were during Desert Storm but now I don't know.
They can be anywhere, even next door. What does the enemy look like? I don't know what a "terrorist" looks like. Do you?
When I hear remarks like, "send all the foreigners home!", I cringe. Unless you are truly Native American (they used to call them "redskins") then which one of us should go home and where is home? Most of my ancestors were foreigners and most of yours were also. I realize fear brings out the best and the worst in all of us.
American is the melting pot of the world. Some of us came to be here because of religion, famine, and political oppression and here we found freedom. I have the freedom to be saying this now and you have the freedom to disagree with me. I suppose my point is that we cannot and must not paint all with the same brush.
I watched elementary children on tv here in Austin, Texas, last evening, asking only to be able to laugh and play with their friends again. These children are students at a Muslin mosque here in Austin, which was attacked a few days ago. These children cannot even speak their parents' native tongue. They speak American English! their first and only language! Are they the enemy? I think not. Some people have been murdered here in American just because of the color of their skin.
This post is rambling as are all my thoughts over the past days. Yes, it is difficult to focus on some things and, yes, it is difficult to sleep uninterrupted at times, but we must keep living each precious day as a gift.
...keep our soldiers safe on the battlefields. |
Jim Flynt (Jimflynt)
| | Posted on Friday, September 21, 2001 - 10:18 pm: | |
(Note: Tom Toll, Linda Asberry and I have all acknowledged here on CADO some problems with focusing and sleep disruption due to the impact of the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist acts. Especially since we are in a sense rescue workers as well, I thought it might be of benefit to create this thread for cat adjusters to express their personal feelings including grief, anger, despair, fear, anxiety or depression. Others may also want to offer additional web links to resources for disaster counseling and techniques for maintaining a healthy mental and emotional state.)
(Enclosed is an article which I found timely and include a hyperlink at the end of part 2 for more information on Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome which readers may find helpful and of interest.)
Witnessing The Unimaginable: How Rescue Workers Are Coping
9/19/2001
By Sarah E. Moran
InteliHealth Correspondent
Gregory Ciottone, M.D., is a man accustomed to disasters, but a scene this week at New York City's Ground Zero was more than even he could imagine.
An exhausted rescue worker toiling amidst the World Trade Center rubble recounted to Dr. Ciottone a gruesome discovery: A dead infant, the arms of an adult wrapped around her in a final, futile, protective gesture.
The rest of the adult's body had been blown away.
What kind of emotional toll do scenes like that take on the rescue workers and medical personnel who witness them?
Rescuers develop a kind of temporary, emotional numbness.
Dr. Ciottone put it this way: "We have all developed a protective skin, mainly because we're just too darn busy to feel much. I go from station to station, rarely taking the chance to sit down and take a hard look at things. The scene is totally indescribable; it occupies 16 acres and is worse than anyone can imagine. Piles of smoldering, stinking rubble stand 10 stories tall."
Dr. Ciottone, emergency-room physician at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who is heading a 56-member, federally funded response team, arrived at Ground Zero in New York City the evening after the bombings.
He was in charge of similar operations among Kosovo refugees who fled to the United States, survivors of the 1998 floods in eastern and central Texas, and during Hurricane Mitch that same year.
In lower Manhattan, Dr. Ciottone and his staff are treating hundreds of the injured rescue workers, disaster-relief specialists, emergency medical technicians, police officers, firefighters, and many others who are sifting through the scene of destruction. These workers' medical problems range from sprained ankles and broken bones to heart attacks, strokes, respiratory distress and deep wounds from protruding debris. |
Jim Flynt (Jimflynt)
| | Posted on Friday, September 21, 2001 - 10:17 pm: | |
(Witnessing The Unimaginable: How Rescue Workers Are Coping ~ Part 2 Continued)
The terrorist bombings' emotional toll on rescue workers is far less tangible but no less frightening.
Among Dr. Ciottone's team is Francine Harrison, a social worker who normally works with substance-abuse patients at Community HealthLink in Worcester, Mass. This experience, her first with a disaster-response team, multiplies "the chaos of my normal job by 10,000 and I'm accustomed to chaos. This is monstrous."
Harrison is heartened that rescue and relief workers in New York City, while trained to deal dispassionately with such situations, are taking private moments to experience personal grief. One man with blistered feet came to Harrison's station the other day, pale and rattled.
"He couldn't believe the enormity of the scene," she said. "He was dizzy, he was dehydrated, he needed to talk. The good thing was, he talked. I gave him water and Gatorade, and he went back out to help after he calmed down."
Dr. Ciottone himself says he expects the emotional reality of the situation to hit him at some point.
When his feelings surface, he says, he will address them head-on. "It will probably happen when I'm out of here, sitting in my living room. Then I'll finally have to reflect on and feel the horror of these days."
For rescue workers of all stripes, grief and other profound feelings will be even deeper than for the rest of us because of "more information, more exposure and more raw data going in" at Ground Zero, says Jeffrey Bryer, a counseling psychologist in suburban Philadelphia who is also a former member of a Harvard trauma-research group "So many of us have connections during this tragedy to somebody who died or was hurt in the bombings. But these people are in the eye of the storm."
Bryer believes that those involved in the World Trade Center and Pentagon rescue and clean-up efforts are building protective boundaries, both consciously and unconsciously, to cope with the immediate reality and its unspeakable horrors.
"In the short run, becoming numb is a coping mechanism; it helps a person detach as much as possible, to realize a job must be done, like the surgeon who must amputate a limb," Bryer says.
"These people at Ground Zero have grieving to catch up on, stuff they can't allow themselves to feel right now because they have important work to do. When they stop, reality will rush in."
Bryer likens this reaction to the soldier who, though seriously wounded in battle, often fights on. It's only afterwards, when his wounds are treated, that he gives in to his pain and suffering.
In the longer term, posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, looms as a distinct possibility for the workers now toiling at the sites of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings and the Pennsylvania plane crash. How a person reacts depends on his or her personality, resources, personal style, connections with others and ways of coping, mental-health professionals agree.
People with PTSD often suffer from nightmares and flashbacks, and can feel either emotionally deflated and depressed, or angry and prone to sudden outbursts. Sometimes they adopt an obsessive need to be watchful, and they can become consumed with issues of safety and security. Many seek to obliterate painful memories with drugs or alcohol. Undiagnosed and untreated, PTSD can consume a person. But sessions with a skilled therapist reliving the experience in a safe environment eventually can lessen the power of a horrifying trauma such as this one.
"When trauma involves a human element a malicious intent by another human being to harm and to kill it makes a stressful reaction much worse," says Kevin Wilhelmsen, a psychiatric nurse specialist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. "The terror that results from assaults with weapons or bombs is much more real and lasting than natural disasters because fellow human beings caused it.
"Prior to the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings, our national climate rarely respected people's emotional need to grieve publicly and recover from psychological trauma," says Wilhelmsen, who works with trauma victims. "Now, grieving is a formal part of recovery; people who were once repressed about crying in public now cry in public. After Oklahoma City and the events of Sept. 11, grief is no longer such a private thing in America."
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/28922/25982/187897.html?d=dmtContent |
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