We just had a quick meeting about Katrina. I work in the Direct Mail department. My supervisor wanted to share how this natural disaster would affect our business. “There are a list of zip codes,” he said, “that we cannot mail to right now because…well…there aren’t any houses there anymore.”
There aren’t any houses there anymore. Did you get that? Whole neighborhoods…whole zip codes…gone. September 3rd is my three year anniversary here. In the time I’ve been here, there hasn’t been this big of an impact on the mail. The hurricanes last year did affect us but not like this. There have been blizzards that slowed the mail but nothing to where we’ve had to warehouse mail in transit because there was no where for it to go. It feels spooky. Ghost towns. And the news just keeps getting worse.
“What about the mail that was already in the mainstream?” someone asked. “Are we doing anything about that?”
“If it’s in the mailstream, then it’s probably gone. If it was already delivered, then it is probably gone…floating in the water or too wet to redeem…and where would they redeem anyway?”
Some people started chuckling, imagining the coupons floating around with the rest of the debris. I don’t know what made me say it but before I could think it through, “It’s really not funny,” came from my mouth. Because it just isn’t. I know we find humor in lots of stuff we shouldn’t and maybe we aren’t necessarily laughing at the tragedy itself, we are trying to find a way to cope or something. No, I don’t see humor in this. Not the least bit.
My supervisor’s supervisor walked up at this point and made a few comments. He talked about this being an act of God. I know that is just what it’s called…something you have no control over…but I wish it wasn’t called an act of God. Still, Erik was somber when he spoke. He brought the seriousness back to our hearts. He made some other comments and then…the one which flooded my eyes with tears…
“the homes aren’t there to deliver to.”
1 comment:
You're very right, it is sad. Not sure if you saw Good Morning America yesterday, but there was a female reporter interviewing an older black man who was hysterically crying. She kept asking him what he wanted to relay and all you could make of the conversation was that he held on to his children (and maybe grandchildren, I can't remember) and had his other hand on his wife's when the water came pouring in and his hand slipped off. He hasn't seen or heard from her since. She's presumably dead. The reporter then started crying and I think it started a nationwide chain reaction!
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