Local Woman Recalls First Experience As Red Cross Emergency Volunteer
Posted
Craig Brosman-
When Annette Coenen got a call from the Red Cross on July 4, she didn’t ask questions or flinch, she just said yes. Early in July strong winds causing a Derecho moved through Northern Indiana and out to the eastern seaboard. When those storms hit, power was lost for a million customers in West Virginia. No one knew how long the outage would last and how extensive the damage would be. All they knew is they needed Red Cross emergency volunteers. Coenen who teaches GED classes in Warsaw had not been on a deployment before receiving the call. “I was called on July 4th and told if I was willing to go I needed to be ready to leave within 24 hours,” Coenen said. “They told me to be prepared for a two-week deployment and that they would pay for the one way ticket to West Virginia.” Coenen as well as another Kosciusko County native Cyndi Peterson shipped out on July 5 for Charleston, W.V. When Coenen arrived in Charleston, she called the Red Cross 800 number to get direction on what to do next. “We were supposed to go to Beckley, but they sent us to Parkersburg instead,” Coenen said. “We were set up at Parkersburg High School at the central command. We called to get updates on the mission and had meetings about the data they had collected.” Parkersburg is about an hour-and-a-half north of Charleston. Coenen slept in the gymanasium that night waiting for more instructions on what to do. On July 6, Coenen and Peterson moved to Lubeck, about 30 minutes west of Parkersburg. “We were stationed at the Lubeck Firestation,” Coenen said. “We were in charge of taking care of eight to nine hospice patients. As power was restored they were sent home. The hospitality that Coenen experienced while she was in Lubeck was especially moving. “I was impressed by how they West Virginians took care of their own,” Coenen said. A large part of what made the disaster difficult for communities was that pay day was just a few days before the disaster and families had spent all their budgeted money on food, only to have it spoil. “People lost hundreds of dollars in food,” Coenen said. “It was a holiday weekend and people had stocked up on it. We would pack food and then send it out with the fire department vehicles to give to families in need.” Without electricity, Coenen said communication was incredibly difficult and there was a lot of confusion in the shelter. “Women worked by the light of oil lamps,” she said. On July 8, after the shelter in Lubeck had been closed, Peterson and Coenen were reassigned to Fayetteville. Fayetteville is almost two hours southeast of Charleston. While in Fayetteville Peterson and Coenen were stationed at a church where they made meals for families and people in need. “We made more than 450 meals a day,” Coenen said. “There were four or five freezers donated to feed those in need. Three were stocked with meat. “ While in Fayetteville Coenen came across a women who had been bed ridden for four years and had not been outside during that time. During the storms her home was destroyed and she was being taken care of at the church. “We would push her bed outside so she could see the sun during the day,” Coenen said. “At night we would take her out so she could see the stats. She would always ask to stay out longer since she enjoyed it so much.” Coenen ended up staying in West Virginia for eight days, nearly two weeks after the disaster struck. Coenen thoroughly enjoyed her time as a volunteer on deployment. “It was a wonderful, amazing experience,” she said. “I wasn’t sure I would do it again after I got back, but now I would.” Looking back Coenen feels that the assignment she had taking care of hospice patients was perfect for her. “Having been through cancer myself, it just seemed like the perfect thing to be able to give back,” she said.
