The Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Service (EDS) response is well organized and able to respond quickly and efficiently to disasters and emergencies of all kinds. We can get volunteers and vital supplies to afflicted areas with a moments notice, but sometimes we demonstrate our human fallibility.
This morning was one of those times.
It began as the canteen crews were loading their supplies – the sandwiches, snacks, and beverages that are served to the flood response teams around the city. One of the canteens was locked and the key hadn’t been put in its proper place. A radio call to the previous evening’s driver went unanswered. A phone call to his cell phone was similarly unanswered. A runner was dispatched to his hotel room to find him and to find the missing canteen key.
Meanwhile a truck with a load of bottled water was on its way to the command center and the canteen was still parked and locked in front of the loading area, blocking the door through which 14 pallets of water would need to be moved.
I wish that I had been ready with my camera to photograph the EDS ingenuity at work, but I missed it. Others among the team here are quite relieved that I wasn’t quick on the draw. They don’t want any evidence of this morning’s misadventure to leak out.
The back end of the obstructing canteen was lifted with a forklift and then rolled – ever so carefully- forward until it was out of the way.
Last night’s driver (who’d been on the late late shift) answered the door with bleary eyes and rumpled hair to hand over the missing key.
And everything is back to, well, whatever passes for normal during these kinds of events. The canteen crews are out delivering food and beverages. The truckload of water was unloaded into the warehouse. And somewhere in the heavens, God is having a great chuckle at our expense.
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