Red Tape And Disorganization

Want to help in Katrina Country? South Florida doctors, firemen, and others with equally crucial skills are being told they're not needed. Some are going in anyways:

[Dr. Douglas] Barlow, [a] Boca pediatrician, said the Red Cross discouraged him from going to the Gulf Coast until he jumped through various paperwork hoops that could take weeks.

He ignored them and flew to Baton Rouge on Sunday, becoming part of what he calls the "largest MASH unit" in U.S. history, set up on the floor of an athletic center arena. While there, he helped save a paramedic who was bleeding internally.

"Sometimes the legislators and politicians don't know how to get out of their own way. But as doctors, we know that while you're getting through the red tape, the patient dies," said Barlow, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boca Community Hospital. "There were physicians from everywhere, and we all came on our own. It was phenomenal. It was a hospital set up so quick, your head spun."

Scott Lewis of West Palm Beach, a former volunteer fire chief, reached out to several private and public relief agencies after Katrina hit, but none called him back. So, on blind faith, he drove north.

"He said, `I don't know how I'm going to get through the roadblocks,'" recalled his wife, Carol Lewis. "He had an old volunteer uniform that was two sizes too small."

Lewis ended up in Gulfport, Mississippi, where he's now running volunteer relief efforts at a local school and asking more Floridians to join him.

"They put him in charge," his wife said. "It's a miracle."

There are many stories like this. Those of you with useful skills that wish to volunteer, don't let some bureaucrat put you off. I'm not confident in their organizational abilities at this moment. Let your good sense and conscience dictate what you need to do.

UPDATE
The Red Cross wants 40,000 more volunteers. I wonder how much paperwork they expect these people to fill out, and how long it will take to process it.