Day 43 of the Apocalypse, Ground Zero, Gerton, NC pop. 231

There are many people who want to help, following a crisis.

Unaffected people descend on scenes of disasters to volunteer, flooding them with donations and willing hands. This is a phenomenon known as Disaster Convergence.

Our area has definitely experienced its fair share of Disaster Convergence. We’ve had hundreds of volunteers come to Gerton over the past month. Some simply dropped off very needed supplies, and then left, understanding they would just get in the way.

Some stayed and brought with them their own ATV transportation, equipment, and set of skills. They slept in tents, trailers, or campers they brought. Many even brought their own food. They offered a phenomenal amount of help - assisting with everything from very technical work to boring work, like re-organizing supplies. They always said “Yes,” when asked to help. These volunteers who truly wanted to help, found a way to help, without question or complaint.

Others showed up un-resourced, and unskilled.

We witnessed a number of volunteers getting upset when we didn’t immediately have something for them to do. When we weren’t as organized as they wanted us to be. When they brought absolutely no skills other than “willing hands,” and were turned away. We patiently listened to them, when they told us how frustrating it was for them to have driven so long to get to us, only to be turned away.

A few volunteers had specific ideas of what they wanted to do that were not accommodated. They wanted to heroically ride on a side-by-side (that they did not bring themselves) to a collapsed home, to rescue a trapped family. When instead they were asked to organize supplies, they got upset. These volunteers fall into another part of the overarching umbrella of Catastrophe Compassion. These are people who say to themselves, “I feel good when I help these poor people.” That is pity, not compassion. That is acting from self-gratification.

There is a phenomenon called “Clout Chasing.” A clout chaser is a person, or group of people, who want to attain fame, by putting themselves in proximity with someone, or something that can leverage their fame.

We had a group of volunteers show up here in Gerton with six mules, wanting to “help.” The mules clogged up our Fire Station parking lot for an entire afternoon, shitting everywhere, and causing first responders to not be able to gather and check in with our Chief. The volunteers wanted a mission to “save people.”

Eventually, they decided they wanted to transport four five-gallon containers of diesel fuel, over the mountain to Middle Fork. This mission could have been accomplished in a much shorter amount of time by one volunteer with a UTV. But the mule volunteers insisted.

So Erik wrote them out very explicit instructions about how to get over the mountain, and they took off. At 11 pm at night, they radioed the Station, asking to be rescued, because they were lost. Firefighters then had to go out, in the middle of the night, and help get them off the mountain. They never did deliver the diesel fuel. They were Clout Chasers, pulling on our resources, for their own benefit.

Other people showed up to “volunteer,” with cameras in tow. Vloggers and YouTubers talked into their cameras the entire time they were here. They wandered around our community, taking photos, without permission, of devastated homes, full of private possessions.

We didn’t ask people to show up here. We did not invite them. They invited themselves. It is not helpful to come into a devastated community, and make the situation about you.

Short-term missions have become popular in the wake of disasters. Often with little preparation, no knowledge of local culture (or sometimes even language), an absence of coordination with government officials, and no plans for long-term follow-up, volunteers show up in droves to “help.” Without technical skills, resources, or a way to take care of themselves, they become just another burden to people who are living in the disaster.

I add myself to this list of people with willing hands. I spent a month in Kenya, in 2011, and traveled in the ministry, speaking to groups of Quakers. I volunteered for a week in a rural hospital. I ended up helping to paint the surgery wing because that is what was needed. But I know, deep in my heart, that I was also a burden to that community, with my inability to speak the local dialect, and my limited skills.

Part of me didn’t want to write about volunteerism at all, because I know this will upset people. I know there are people with big hearts and willing hands, who truly want to make a difference.

All I am suggesting is that when you are considering what it means to make a difference, you take into account the people you are serving, and the situations you are walking into.

I’m inviting all of us to consider what it truly means to be compassionate. Compassion arises from a sense of shared humanity, from solidarity, respect, and a profound awareness of interconnectedness.

The underlying human impetus is to want to help. We are more inclined to help when we identify with the people who are suffering. Each of us identifies with multiple groups, for example, based on our race, upbringing, generation, ideology, or profession. It is easy for us to express loyalty, care, and pro-sociality towards members of our own groups. In the wake of Helene, many people who came here identified with the people of Western North Carolina. They could see themselves, in us.

Emotional connection can also motivate Catastrophe Compassion. When we share in, understand, and care for the emotional experience of others, we want to reach out and help. I experienced this when yet another one of my brothers died by suicide, two weeks after the hurricane. This disaster upon disaster claimed people’s hearts. There was an extraordinary outpouring of love and support for me, from hundreds of people who I don’t know personally. They shared their own vulnerable stories of suicide with me.

Disasters lower psychological barriers and create immediate opportunities for connection and community. Compassion is immediately available. Disasters trigger a deep sense of vulnerability. We are brought together in our grief, our disorientation, and our disbelief - whether we are living in the disaster, or observing it from the outside.

In the highest form of compassion, we are aware that suffering exists, we are empathetic to it, and we are committed to alleviating the suffering that accompanies it. Disasters offer us the opportunity to do all three of these things.

Our opportunity, as a people, is to learn how to do this when there is no disaster.