Day 6 of the Apocalypse, Gerton, NC pop. 231

This is the message I shared today at our daily community meeting. I hope this is helpful to you if you have also been impacted by the hurricane:

My name is Emma Churchman and I’m a Trauma Chaplain.

I want to take a few minutes to speak with you all about what we have just been through as a community.

Regardless of what you have been through over the past 5 days you have experienced a traumatic event.

Maybe your home or your property was damaged. Maybe a neighbor or a loved one you know is suffering. Maybe the rescue and the recovery work that you’ve been doing has shown you things you’ve never had to deal with before. Maybe you didn’t personally experience any damage.

It doesn’t matter. Each of us has had a traumatic experience.

We are here because a giant hurricane tore through our gorge and had its way with us.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime devastation that will change each of us and the community of Gerton for the rest of our lives.

We are different people today than we were a week ago.

It’s normal to feel out of place as a result. It’s normal to not know how to exist.

What you are doing here today is so important. You are choosing to come together as a community. You are finding ways to work together and to be of help.

You are partaking of the amazing resources that are being showered on us right now by people outside of Gerton. Every time you accept help you are blessing the person who is giving to you. You are helping us to come together as a larger community.

As a Trauma Chaplain, my role is to listen to you and support you, regardless of what religion you are, or whether or not you are religious. I am specifically experienced in helping people through situations just like we’re going through right now.

But here’s the thing about being in the middle of a catastrophic event - it’s hard to understand in the moment that you are experiencing a stress response.

So I want to give you some markers to look for, so you know if you’re having a trauma response - which of course is normal.

1. You can only remember one thing at a time. You start walking to do something but then someone starts taking to you and you completely forget what you were going to do.
2. You feel anxious when you did not have a lot of anxiety before.
3. You seem to be doing okay but then all of a sudden you’re overcome with anger or with sadness. You start yelling or crying. Then it passes and you can’t figure out what made you angry or sad.
4. You get obsessive about creating a routine for yourself - you have to wake up at a certain time, turn on your generator at the same time every day, or keep your house organized a certain way.
5. You get really upset at other people and how they are handling the hurricane catastrophe. You think they should be responding differently.
6. You keep repeating the same stories about what you have experienced because you are trying to make sense of them.
7. You’re drinking a lot more than normal.
8. You’re not sleeping or you’re only sleeping for a few hours each night.
9. You’re having apocalyptic dreams of being trapped or running out of food.
   

If you’re going through any of the things I’ve described - you aren’t crazy, and there is nothing wrong with you.

Your body, mind, and heart are trying to process what has happened. You’re trying to find ways to cope and get through this.

If you find yourself responding in ways that you don’t normally, or if you feel out of control or out of sorts, please come talk with me.

I am here to help talk with you about what you’re going through and help you figure out how to deal with this new reality that we are in.
If you like, I am here to pray with you and bless you.

We also don’t have to talk. You can just touch me on the shoulder or squeeze my hand so that I know you are going through some of the things I just spoke about, and I can hold you in my prayers.

I am here to be with you in this and will help in any way I can. I’ll be here every day if I can at 1 pm and for a few hours afterward if you want to connect with me.