Prayers for the Suffering - Flooding in Texas, Houston and Surrounding Areas, Louisiana
In seeking to understand the comprehensive nature of the suffering related to flooding, one could very well compare it to aspects of being in a war zone. In both war and flooding, the innocent experience horror, fear, the loss of life, and the very real devastation of a life once held, no matter how difficult it was, which held a semblance of security and joy.
Those who are suffering in Texas, Southwest Louisiana, (and perhaps in the coming days, New Orleans), are enduring horrors, and devastation which is traumatic in the extreme.
The horror of waters flooding into your home, the horrors of sitting on your roof, in the daylight, and worse in the dark, the never ending rain soaking you through, praying to be rescued cannot be underestimated. In shock, shuttled from rescue center to rescue center, with only the clothes on their backs, hearts and minds process the totality of their loss. It is the kindness of those who are serving and those in neighboring communities who come forward to help the displaced with at times, the very basic of needs, which is a balm and comfort to weary bodies and minds.
When the waters recede, there are new horrors to endure. The total loss of homes and apartments, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, religious centers, and businesses as well as the loss of dearly held memento's from the past, the loss of vehicles, the loss of everything which once held families and individuals in homes and lives understood, albeit however difficult.
There will come the challenges and greater hardships of assembling paperwork without identification papers, insurance papers, and what is needed to make a traumatic process of tearing down and rebuilding a little smoother. There will be the waiting for the gutting of homes as mold builds, covering that which was once precious and dear. There will be the great piles of items of pride and dearness, now debris. There will be the finding of temporary accommodations, especially difficult for the poor, who before the flooding barely made it from week to week, yet were making it.
On top of the trauma there is the experience of helplessness which sets in deeper to the heart. Many having lost their cars to go to work, their work gone, schools and medical centers destroyed, with no home to live in, seek shelter in areas nearest to home, in areas which are visibly devastated face at the same time, a rebuilding process with challenges difficult to understand if you live in flood free zones.
Eventually in time, homes are rebuilt, new memories are built, and the challenges of the disaster experienced overcome. Communities coming together, volunteers from around the country, and sometimes the world (in the case of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina) - to help, and government assistance helps to heal much of the outer and inner trauma, and can offer the heart a sense of hope and up-liftment, yet even so, the trauma and the toll of such experiences is held deep within those who have suffered.
Those who are suffering in Texas and adjacent areas are in the initial stages of going through intense trauma, it will take years of struggle and difficulty to rebuild their lives. I hope that these peoples are not forgotten once the drama of the storm itself moves on, for they will need help for many years to come.
Prayers for the suffering, give what you have to give. Give of your clothes, give what funds you have to give, if you can, volunteer in the rebuilding or gutting process. It is through our helping each other, our carrying each other forward, that the greatest healing can come manifest in times of immense suffering.
Special prayers of remembrance for those who suffered through hurricane Katrina and moved to the safer grounds of Houston who are now experiencing a similar trauma of flooding, loss, devastation, and helplessness in the wake of this flooding catastrophe.
with love, JohannaAll blessings and prayers for our planetary brothers and sisters suffering flooding related devastations and deaths in Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.
|
|