Editor’s note: This story is part of a short series that will chronicle 65-year-old David Greene’s experiences, thoughts and feelings while volunteering in areas of Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey. Greene will periodically provide WYDaily with excerpts from journal entries he writes while he is with the American Red Cross in Houston.
As eastern Texas fights to overcome massive flooding and destruction from Hurricane Harvey, Americans from all corners of the United States are responding to aid those whose lives have been destroyed.
Among them is 65-year-old York County resident David Greene, who deployed to Texas with the Williamsburg chapter of the American Red Cross Wednesday afternoon.
Greene, a retired Navy officer and York County Fire & Life Safety emergency medical technician, boarded a jet plane at Richmond International Airport Wednesday and flew alone to Dallas. Greene wrote a journal entry while on the plane, documenting his anxiety and gathering thoughts about the extent of the destruction in Texas.
“Temps + humidity are reasonable,” Greene wrote while taxiing down the runway in Richmond. “I think East Texas won’t be so kind, when the sun comes out the air will be thick and heavy.”
“They’ve lost everything, their homes their property, many have lost their jobs + their community,” Greene continued. “Whole lives erased in the rush of flood water.”
Greene is no stranger to nature’s destruction. In September 2003, Greene and his wife’s house in York County was destroyed by Hurricane Isabel. Greene was working with York County Fire & Life Safety full-time when trees fell on the house.
His wife had to be rescued from their home, and Greene spent ten days working with the fire department to clear the roads.
“I remember what it felt like during + after Isabel,” Greene wrote. “The years of trying to get back to where you started + then realizing you never get back there. Nothing is ever the same + you don’t get a credit for the lost time + effort. And my experience, by comparison, was mild by contrast.”
“Houston is a quantum magnitude worse, almost incomprehensible on a grand scale,” he added.
Greene’s first journal entry also documented the 64-year-old’s concern he had not brought enough to help Texans in need.
He wrote: “Have to be concerned about having the means to help. The ability + capacity to mitigate so many need. Brought a few essential first-aid supply, things I was told had been in short supply on other disaster relief efforts. Assorted bandaids, ace bandages, exam gloves, etc, but certainly not enough to help 100’s or 1000’s. Packed as much as I could based on what I imagined I’d encounter. I’ll be stressed if I don’t have something I need + realize I didn’t think about that thing or decided to leave it out of my overloaded pack.”
While Greene has volunteered with the American Red Cross in York County, he has never volunteered in another part of the country following a natural disaster.
As a “new-bee,” Greene wrote about advice he had been given by a fellow EMT: Do not lose your cool when everyone else is.
Greene closed his journal entry: “Descending to Dallas.”
On Thursday morning, Greene boarded a bus in Dallas with nearly 50 Red Cross volunteers, headed for the disaster zone in Houston.
