Surviving the Storm: Autoimmune Challenges in Natural Disasters

What happens after the floodwaters recede? For individuals living with autoimmune conditions like lupus, the real storm often begins once the skies clear. In this episode of Lupus Has No Face Podcast, host Savannah Burks sits down with community organizer and activist Vaun Mayes, founder of Community Task Force MKE and Program The Parks MKE. Together, they explore the overlooked health challenges natural disasters create for people with chronic and autoimmune conditions. From exposure to mold and fungi in damaged homes to difficulties accessing life-saving medications and professional care, Savannah and Vaun unpack how disasters magnify existing vulnerabilities. They also discuss how stress, poor sanitation, and disrupted healthcare services can trigger flare-ups or even lead to new chronic conditions. This conversation sheds light on the hidden costs of natural disasters—and the urgent need for communities to rally around those most at risk.

Thank you for tuning in to "Lupus Has No Face," a podcast dedicated to sharing real stories and insights on living with Lupus and other invisible illnesses. Join your host, Savannah Burks, as she explores the struggles and triumphs of individuals navigating their health journeys, all while juggling life's many challenges. Don't miss an episode! Subscribe, listen, and share on all major podcast platforms. For more content and updates, follow us on social media and join the conversation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sorry m hm m h were asweened shirt heard street up?

(00:21):
M m m m m mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you for tuning in to another wonderful Ever Too
of Lucas has No Face, the podcast where we talk
about real life, real struggles and the power behind Lucas
and beyond. I'm your host Savannah Burts, and our special
guest in the building to Sday is mister Vaughn. Thank
you for joining us again you are we will be
discussing surviving the storm. Okay, so before we get into

(01:46):
all of that, what was the rushing here?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Like, what was you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Y'all?

Speaker 4 (01:52):
He was, Yeah, I was speaking here shut of you know,
I don't like being late.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
You know what I'm saying that being late a lot lately,
but you know, just got a lot going on, so
I try to be his own time work.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
It's not as late as not possibly can.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
So you know, because y'all, he came in here like
yours might chasing you.

Speaker 6 (02:17):
Todd, he showed up like I can't do this work.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
No, I thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I greatly appreciate that. So, you guys, I was just
sharing with them a little doctor's visit before we get
into this. So people that know me know that I'm
trying to lose some weight. You know, I don't put
on some pounds, and when you don't put on some
pounds more than your pregnancy.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
But that's a problem at least for me. So I'm
way bigger than my pregnancy.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Way the long story short, you guys, I went to
the doctor, I went to another My PCP referred me
to another PCP, and she was a little bit confused
because they both are PCPs and they normally don't refer
a pcpiece some PCP, so she should have referred me
to a management doctor instead, which, yeah, my doctor messed up.

(03:05):
But long story, sure, I was trying to get you know,
the exacting I was trying to get.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Get that shot.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Y'all looking good out there with that shot, and she
was just kind of like, we're gonna put you on
a regular workout regimen and and meal plan.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I do all of that already. I need some fast
acting things like you know. So that was the thing.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I wasn't too happy about that because it took me
like a month to get in reschedule an appointment, and
I had to wait a whole hour and it was
a late appointment.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
To do what you're doing anyway.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, I guess I ain't fat about y'all.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
I need to join Chrissy Chrissy class because when I
was in that class before she got me together, and
then once I got to where I needed to be,
I'll just stop going, which you supposed to make the
life out you got.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
To especially, you can't just get it in there and
be like that's it. You gotta you know what I'm saying.
I have to get into the habit of working out.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Period.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
Before I got to this way, I was always a
good deal, like I always but once the ways started
coming on, and I've never been a type of workout,
so that's what killed it for me. So I got
to get into that, and then I know it's gonna
have to be something I commit to and keep going.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
You gotta incorporate that into your life. Because when I
first went to her class, everything was just like because
I worked workout on and off throughout my whole entire life,
but it was just like getting back into that groove.
I'm just like, oh my gosh. But after a week,
I felt so good. I wasn't stressing about what I
was stressing about. One worried about what was going on
before I even got there, Like it became like a

(04:42):
happy space for me, and it was.

Speaker 6 (04:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
So I don't know why I didn't keep continue to
keep going because I guess it's like I feel like,
when you gotta do something, I'm kind of rebellious against it,
and I think that's kind of what it is. But
never unless you guys, we're gonna get back.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
On top, get off your chest first time.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yes, I had to get this off my chest.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
So before I even get into like some traditional questions
or whatever, what were you affected by the flood that
happened not too long ago?

Speaker 5 (05:18):
I personally no, Like I didn't have no damage to
my uh and luckily for me, my house is like
kind of on a heel, so whatever water did come,
it didn't seep into or get to accumulate right off
a freeway. So my power was going crazy going in
and out. But other than that, no damage, no flood.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Other than that, So.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Was you present when it was happening or did somebody
like reach out.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
To you like Czy was crazy.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
We were supposed to do stay fair and the last
day we did so the day before the last day,
which was the day that it started raining, because it
started raining and they expected, you know, the rain.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
They shut everything down when we got there and they
was like, you know.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
And then that night leading into the next day, that's
when everything kind of like I was seeing the videos
of the flood and around first first I thought it
was just like West Oulist because it started really out
there by State there State on the water initially and
then little parts around Greenfield and West Aulis. Then I
woke up the next morning and I'm like, oh, Milwaukee

(06:23):
is flooding now, Like I didn't expect that.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
So you slept through the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Yeah, I grew up in Mississippi. We have terrible storms,
so that you know, there's storms we have up here
on be all. I'm not scared of lightning or none
of that stuff. So yeah, I did. I watched it
throughout the night, went to sleep, and woke up because
I didn't expect it to affect Milwaukee. I thought it
was just out that way. So yeah, it was definitely

(06:49):
a shock when I woke up the next morning.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, it was crazy for me because we had did
loopus walked in Napa, Illinois for Oopus Luca Socalia Illinois.
So we was there, me and my team was there,
and we came back and I was getting all types
of text messages and I'm just like, why is everybody
asking me?

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Am I okay? Like something happened that I don't know about?
Like who don't want to tell me something?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Right? And there's no thundering, no raining where I'm at,
no nothing, like I'm cool. And I'm studying my one
friend campbella. She's cap't texting me, can't texting me, and
I'm just like I started responding to her. I'm like why,
Like what's going on? Like, just tell me what happened. Like,
So I was cleaning up or whatever the case may be,

(07:36):
waking up throughout the night because it was going crazy
and I'm just like, ooh these lightnings but it was
no rain, which was really weird, Like I didn't see
no rain, it was just lightning. And so when I
woke up the next morning, I was on the phone
with people and I went on Facebook and that's how
I was like is this real? So potawotomy and all
the cars that was getting told out and people was

(07:58):
on top of their car and I was just like,
oh my gosh, so that's how I found out. So
I thank god I wasn't affected by your or the neighborhood,
but I do feel like real bad for the people
that was affected by it.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, and a lot of people don't know.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
Milwaukee don't have a lot of weather anomalies like that,
but every one of them I've been a part of relief.
So in my early twenties, I worked for Milwaukee Community
Service Corps and there was a flood in like certain
parts of Milwaukee where which which flooded.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Again, we do have flood.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Zones here, but other people because I don't know, so
I can't say them offhand, but it's certain areas of
the city that flood. If we get that type of rain,
it's going to get that flood. And like, for instance,
Shermon Park is a real bad flood area. That's why
they plant those new trees there to try to soak
up because if you actually drive past there when the rain,

(08:51):
you'll see water just sitting there. And so we do
have a number of flood zones around the city, but
we don't usually get enough rain like that or to
get to that level. But in my early twenties, we
did mold remediation, Like we went into people's houses and
we had to cut out the wood and places in
the basement where it had molded out and was affected

(09:13):
by the water.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
So that was my first time.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
And then a couple of years ago we had that
it was it was a tornado, but it didn't touch
the ground, so it pulled down a lot of trees,
power lines. That was about a year or two ago.
All across the city. It was trees on people's houses, cars,
block and rods. So we went out and cut you know,
trees off people's cars and houses and was helping with that.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
So that's really dope. And I don't know nothing about that.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
The only thing that I knew about I think it
was like twu, I had my daughter around the time
that we had something like major like this, and I.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Other than that, I think it was this bad.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I think this was it wasn't that bad.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
This was worse than because that's when I worked for
that company back.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, that is so crazy.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Okay, tell us about the work that your organization that
has been doing on the grounds with specific support. Are
you providing for valuable groups including those with autoimmune conditions?

Speaker 5 (10:09):
So specifically, so I also I want to give a
shout out to like Montreal, Caine and Mirror and my
guy Z's Abdullah with Empower Jacai. He's with west Care.
They've been doing more of the physical out their work.
I've been sick probably the last week or so, but

(10:31):
what I've been doing is compiling. So we already have
a network of people that contact us and stuff like
this happened because they know we do disaster relief. Disaster relief,
it's one of the divisions of conference, so elected officials
coordinating with them. Some people saw me go live with
the governor, the county executives and a bunch of people
like that. Some of the state senators and reps have

(10:54):
been coordinating with me to one compiler lists of people
who need assistance because a lot of people, you know,
we're dealing with FEMA and stuff like that, and with
the person that's in office now, it's very difficult.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
They not trying to really help nobody.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
They really trying to get rid of FEMA and condense
it because they look at it as waste and they
want to They don't have a specific thing about blue
states or places that didn't vote for him. Where they
try not to get them support. So we we are
like a stand in for people who are waiting for
assistance or waiting for that kind of stuff. So we've
been coordinating with mainly elderly disabled people or people with

(11:31):
certain conditions, especially with mold, because what people don't understand
is the first thing was the water pumping people water
out of people's basement. Sure, the second thing is to
clean up, and if that cleanup or that water take
a long time and then get into weeks, that turns
into mold and other toxic you know, elements that definitely
affect people with loopis, with breathing conditions, with health conditions,

(11:54):
and who may be elderly. I've even had people who
are totally disable trapped in houses and stuff like that.
So it's more so than the physical and economic loss
of people's cars and you know, property and stuff like that,
the heightened chances that people can actually lose their life
because they don't have the tools to make it out

(12:16):
and you're talking about electricity and water and all type
of hazards that they come along with that.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's just like so mind bottling when you say all
those things, like just to go back to FEMA, like
that money belongs to who and how do they get
that money? And what did they get that money for?
What proposal did they write up to get that money?

Speaker 5 (12:38):
Right?

Speaker 2 (12:39):
And I'm saying that to say exactly what it's supposed
to be used for? Or is this and I don't
understand why it's being acted upon off of emotions and
not what people are really actually going through. So when
you say that, is there any way that they that
the people can get around that they can complain to,
like any other organization that's helping besides FEMA, or like

(13:02):
what can they do about that?

Speaker 5 (13:03):
And you have your local Red Cross? And then you
have community efforts. It's a lot of community resident led efforts.
Montreal was one going around poking the drains. So there
are a number of things that we can do to
help alleviate it before something like that happens. To be
honest on this level where it talks about something like FEMA,
which is a federal thing that depends on voting and

(13:26):
who we allow in and out. You know what I'm
saying of that office to be like do they care
enough that you know when stuff like this happens that
they own it right away?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Right.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
One of the things we've had to try to educate
and inform people about is FEMA ain't automatic. You literally
have to call these numbers and it don't matter if
they got you a whole fifteen twenty minutes or hour,
or if they got to call you back in a
couple of days. You need to report your losses because
that total number of damage is what is what validates
and kind of pushes the button for FEMA in all

(13:59):
those other relief efforts to happen. So right now, I
think the last number I saw, we were at thirty
million in damages, right, yeah, for sure. So you have
to reach a certain number of damages before they even
consider this a disaster type type a.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Certain amount of number. It's not based on individuals and
we already got the money.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
No, And that's how government works unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
It's like say, if you get in a car wreck, right,
the insurance company ain't just gonna be like, come check
on your car. You got to report the claim for sure,
So you have to do that piece of it before
they can say this was the level of damage over
the level of loss. Okay, then we could we know
how to gauze that if nobody is doing these reports.
If nobody is doing damaged assessments, then we just left

(14:45):
in the wind. I mean, of course, you can physically
see flooding and physically see a million cars, you know
what I'm saying out here. But if nobody, if we're
not doing our piece to make those reports, then they
definitely ain't coming.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
So how long do you have after the storm to
report that?

Speaker 2 (15:00):
So, like you said, people got jobs, and people are
trying to find places to sleep and all these other
things that they are worried about. What time frame do
they have to report to FEMA so they can be covered.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I don't think it's a time that they have to
be poor.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
But the most important thing is to do it right
away as soon as possible, and that way that number
can pile up as SaaS as possible to reach the
highest amount, and then that starts the process of that
assistance coming. So the longer you take to report it,
the longer you're behind and getting that support. If that
makes sense.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
No, for sure.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
So like you said, houses been destroyed, right, so no
receipts or anything like that. Do they need any receipts
to report they losses?

Speaker 5 (15:38):
I don't I think you can really do like a
generalization because I mean, if your house is flooded, for sure,
they don't expect you to have physical courceeats. But you
need to be able to say, I lost my car.
The car is right here. I don't have a receipt
for the car, but the car is value that so
and so amount. My basement was completely furnished, This couch
costs so and so amount, like you can. You can
itemize kind of estimate to reach whatever number you know

(16:03):
personally or directly, but that adds to the larger number
of the total laws for the entire area for relief
to come in for that city or that county or
whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
So y'all remember to report is very important no matter
what it is that you're doing. Like you said, you
got to report on order for it to go the
way that you need to go.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, and even.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
It's so many layers because between like home ownership or
if you're renting. You know, like I encourage everybody to
get renters insurance if you're renting, and really that should
be almost like a large something in place to where
your landlord has to like offer that or or encourage
you or or help you through the process of getting
that because as a renter, you know what I'm saying,

(16:44):
if you don't have that insurance. As a homeowner, you
don't have that insurance, that's another layer of you know, stuff,
that another avenue you can go towards of getting your
stuff that you don't have to count on the federal
government or FEMA, right.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Because they the homeowners are effect that in you are.
So that's two clans with them one right.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yeah, but it's it's kind of an either or. If
you don't have that, then you are reliant on the
government or the the help that comes through that method.
But if you have that, that's more of a direct
personal you know what I'm saying right around payout pass.
So you have different avenues depending on what your circumstances is.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It's a lot of houses, especially the ones that I
live in, that require that, and they know if you
don't have it, because if you don't have it, they
attacking that amount on and you're getting theirs. So actually
that's a good thing if you say it like that,
you know what I'm saying, because before I used to
feel like I'm forced, like why do I have to
have that? But I had it and I do have
it still, so that's something and it doesn't cost much

(17:43):
at all.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
Yeah, a lot of people think insurance and they don't
think it's going to be I mean, we spend more
on you know, bs and having fun and stuff like that.
So you know, all types of insurance we need to
really invest in and look into to have that coverage
just in case myself included.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
You know what I'm saying. I'm one of the ones too.
But it's something that we need to.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
Invest in because again, I've been screaming about disaster relief
for a number of years because just because we don't
have them or have them all the time, don't mean
this stuff ain't gonna happen. And especially people who don't
pay attention to the fact that weather it's getting worse.
Tornado Alley actually has extended beyond the area it was before,

(18:28):
so we're having tornadoes in places we've never had them before. Floods, droughts,
forest fires, all of this stuff is getting stronger and worse.
They're even talking about adding a category six to tornadoes
and hurricanes.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
What is that?

Speaker 5 (18:44):
So those usually go up to a level five and
it goes from level to level depending on the size
of it, the amount of damage it calls, and the
wind speed. So you're getting bigger, stronger storms that are
on the brink of going past the highest level that
they have right now.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
And so what would that do, like increase the number
of increase the amount of shurance that you can get,
because you know it's a cap Like, what does that
do with then raising into.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
A level six?

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Well, so the level of tornado that's really just just
determining the a level of danger that it has. So,
for instance, instead of an F five, which could be
a mile wide, right, so you're talking about a tornado
that's a mile wide and length. So if that goes
down the street, all of those houses can be damaged.

(19:31):
You know what I'm saying. It could last longer, it
could do a whole lot more. Now imagine a level
beyond that right to where it can literally affect maybe
a bigger side of town. Right, It could kill more people,
It could do a bunch more damage. The wind speed
is more dangerous. Those are just the dynamics of the storm,

(19:53):
but they definitely affect the amount of damage and the
amount of you know, habit that could cause, which worse
would lead to the need for more support.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
So it will be something in place for the next time,
if there is the next time.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Prepared.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Okay, you want to read some of those comments that
on the on the screen.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Let me see, Hey, my brother, I'm blind today.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Because I'm like, I don't have a classes, so let
me let me see if I can see him on
my going on your screen. Okay, I think that's that's phoenix.
Hey Phoenix, she said my face.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yes, yeah, I was out of town without service and
thought I missed the rapture is actually very insightful.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
I didn't notice. Let me make my call te Yes.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Spread the word phoenix.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
Hey, very essential.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Thank you for tuning in. You guys, thank you for
tuning in, and please share your share so we can
inform as many people as possible. If you didn't know,
it was a lot of other people that do not know,
so thank you for that. What have been the biggest
barrier in getting resources to the people who need them
the most, So.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
Again, one is the information, So having the correct information,
having a central space for it. Because even like with
our response right, we have several were we come together
to form flood Hope dot org, which is a collective
of us that come together.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
Are they refer to us as a justice league, but
it's myself.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
Montreal came disase Abdullah in Jacai shout out to you guys.
But even in those efforts, there's like conforce doing this.
Montreal has been doing this, so it's even being getting
on the same pace. So we could say, let's all say,
you know, put this information out, put a collective symbol
on it so that everybody is getting the same stuff, right,

(21:54):
because even with reporting, some people reported to me, some
people are reporting it through the website, some people are
reporting it through Facebook, through you know, other other lenses,
and so how do we limit those and say this
is because the difference is we are community community response,
so as soon as we get that information, we can

(22:15):
get to work on it. But we do also have
to have the manpower in place. We do also have
to have the equipment in place and all of these
different stuff. So even with the response, there's been some issues,
like we got seventy calls and it's only one crew
of like seven people out, so people are like, we've
been waiting a week, you know, and I'm like, some

(22:37):
of these crews have worked till three or four in
the morning right on some of these houses. So people
want the assistance right then and there, but we're still
trying to get it to a point where we can
get to as many places. And it's terrible. But in
the meantime, FEMA ain't coming tomorrow. These insurance claims ain't
coming tomorrow. Like the last incident we had with the
wind stuff, sure it was thirty it was over like

(23:00):
a month and a half later, and people were without power.
People still had trees on their houses and cars, and
we had to get out there a week. Yes, like
we documented a lot of that stuff and we removed
at least seventeen different sites of down trees from out
of roadways from you know what I'm saying, But people
were still waiting on assistance from the city, the county

(23:22):
or whatever. So I want people to have the patience
one because in these situations, like we can only do
what we can, and you know, as we can, but
we know the government and some of this assistants, you're
going to be waiting a lot longer than you'll be
waiting on us.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
This is so sad, Like I'm just getting like chills
through my body, like hey, and for sure. Number one,
they do need to show you guys some grace. But
they don't know right right, they don't know if you
guys are as big as they think, and you guys
are not big. So my thing is that how can
you get more people to be involved, to be on
a team first and foremost, like for a next time,

(23:59):
if there's the next time, or if people can start
working with you guys now, because I know it's still
a lot to do.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
So one thing that I've been doing and that this
has helped because now the governor, like some of these
elect officials are letting the governor know, like these are
people that's been doing this work. They've been trying to get,
you know, the attention to say the community and residents.
Doing this work is clearly a faster response than a
lot of the stuff that So they need support, we

(24:24):
need training, a disease and empower. They've been raising dollars
to try and get young people to be a workforce
to be able to come in and help with some
of this stuff. Right, So they're raising dollars to be
able to hire young people to take take on some
of these houses. A crew of four or five young
people to clear out a house or pump the water.
That way, we can have you know, a lot stronger

(24:48):
amount of people doing the work and you know, deal
with the issue that folks don't have jobs, you know
what I'm saying, And this is something that they could
they could do in real time and be compensated for.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Right.

Speaker 5 (24:58):
So we're just trying to figure out different ways to
incentivize people to do the work and at the same
time build you know, a longer term goal of support
for this so that we're able we don't have to say, Okay,
it rained last night, it's flooding. Let's go try to
raise money to buy five pumps. Let's go raise money

(25:20):
to buy boots. Let's go raise money to buy all
the stuff we need to even come to me, you
know what I'm saying. So again it's a thing of patience,
but it's also a thing of getting people to understand
when we say this stuff is a need.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
You may say, well, we don't have.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Floods every day in Milwaukee, but when we do have
a flood, look where we're at. So if you would
have listened to me years ago when I told you
this was a thing, We've been going all over the
country helping people with this, but here it's like we
ain't got it, so you know, it ain't a priority.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
It's a priority now.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
So that is just so sad because I literally when
I first seen to you, I thought you was just
a part of one thing, Like you got your hands
in a lot and a lot of these big name
organizations that's getting thousands of millions of dollars. I've been
screaming as they need to disperse that to the smaller
organizations that's in a community, because.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
We are the ones that's doing the leg work for everything.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Y'all up there, y'all don't see half of anything, not
even seventy five percent of what's going on in the
communities because y'all are not y'all y'all pleet this not
on the ground. So I just hope that y'all get
what it is that y'all need, because I've been seeing
I'm like, your hands is in everything, and it's just
so amazing, like how your crew is really going out
there doing you know what I'm saying, what's needed, and

(26:31):
y'all are not complaining. Y'all faces are really of a
concern and things like that. So not to have what
y'all need. I'm sure that that's a frustration. Like I'm
sure that's a frustration.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
But you know, we're making progress, I'll say that, especially
with folks who didn't do this work before, but they
see your need right here in the hometown and they've
been out there. Montreal has been viral a million times
for unclogging those drains or all across the seat. Y'all
so much stuff in there, right, But that's the thing too,

(27:05):
it's a conversation that we need to have about keeping
our streets and our drains clean. That's one thing everybody
can do if you don't want this level of flood
And again, somebody on that block, I don't care if
you didn't put the paper down there. If you don't
want your block and your house to be flooded at
some point, somebody needs to make a routine thing about
going and making sure those drains are clear, that.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Community clean up or something like that. And you said
something I wanted to kind of go back. You said
about all the information, Like if I didn't know anything,
all the information and all the teams that you named
here today, I know nothing about.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
So how can people or how can you give.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
The information like whether it's visible person to see at
the gas stations, because it's not in our face, we
don't know.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Well, so that's work on our part.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
We just had like a three hour call last night
about even the houses that we're servicing, right, having some
lick to give them, right, So not just showing up
the people house, you know, getting the water removed, getting
the basement cleaned out, doing the mold remediation, and then
going to the next place, right, we want to leave
them with some information for if this ever happens again,

(28:12):
you do know who to call and who's doing what
in information that has all of us on there to say,
well this outside of this Montreal and mirror, does this, empower,
does this?

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Conforce?

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Does this?

Speaker 5 (28:23):
And these are people you can call if you have
any of these issues. Right, So the inner the education
piece that's on us. We also would like to put
it on our electeds to to put that information out
as well, because a lot of times when we have
like people who venn or events, they giving out information
and none of us are on there. But when something

(28:44):
like this happens, we are the ones that's you know
what I'm saying, So so balance of who you are
promoting right, And then we also talked about like I know,
for a lot of my events and organizations, I go
get like stickers made. So if I give away a prize,
I'll put the con Force sticker on there, or we
locked in sticker on there, maybe with a QR code
or something like that, so we could put them all

(29:05):
over the city for people to recognize. Or if we've
been to somebody house, they can slap that sticker up
there to say, these people service my house or came
to help me. So it's a campaign that it's more
lead work for us to do, but we're working on that.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
I don't know how quick you can have them, but
it's a big event that we're going to be a
part of. Shout out to family and friends or friends
and family. I may be sending it backwards to Rachel
and her husband Lewis, and it's going to be a
lot of people there. So if you can get some
flyers made, well all of y'all stuff up there, I
can just pass it out and I'm sure that they're
going to pass it out to other people too, So
I mean that could be a start, and that's it's Sunday,

(29:41):
So if you can get them to me or are
you able to that's a big event that I would
be at.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
Actually hoping to have some stuff in time for this weekend,
so tomorrow hopefully we'll have some progress on the lit
and some of this stuff we got to lock in Saturday,
so hopefully we'll have some stuff for that. But we
are working on that to get it done and completed
in printing, so we have it ready because we do
still get a lot of calls, and we're actually doing

(30:07):
some trainings and getting the people that we are hiring
ready to go out and tackle some of these calls
because it's a lot of people that.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Still need help.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
So I'm sure that Lord Jesus okay, our healthcare providers
and disastrous relief teams doing enough to meet the unique
needs of people with chronic illnesses. So do you have
any type of information on that, like, do you have
a team that's coming in with these people are disabled
or out they asked the pump or ventilators, taking like

(30:36):
their blood pressure, doing any type of medical anything.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
No, So that's actually an aspect that we haven't even
been able to tackle yet. Of those particular things we
would love to shout out to Keenan Health Services. There's
a sight on ninety first and Silver Spring, and then
the one on MLK doctor Tito them. That's some a
group of medical group that we work with and clinics

(31:00):
we work with closely on a lot of other stuff.
It would be great to connect with some folks who
would like to do that type of follow up. But again,
that takes a conversation, and that takes you know, raising
the alarm and offering that partnership to people who would
want to do that, because I don't even we haven't
even thought to that level to include that part yet.

(31:21):
So I'm almost certain a lot of those folks aren't
thinking that that's a high need right now, right They
just business as usual for the most part. But that
is that's extremely important, and that's why, like I know,
our listening has a priority setting. You have people with
special needs, You got people with again all type of
medical issues where they can't get up and leave or

(31:44):
sharn for themselves. So we're just trying to prioritize them
folks to get to them fast. But we haven't built
in that piece to say, okay, it's someone making sure
you got your medication. It is someone making sure one
of the calls we're talking about the electrician, he was
out near on like a breathing machine or.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
Something like that.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
Like, we haven't even been able to tackle that stuff,
and that is something that is very much so still
a need as well.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
So it's something in the works.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
Now that you mentioned it most definitely of being the works.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
We went forward, Well, lessons have this disasterus talk us
about the importance of preparation, especially for a medical environment
of the populationility the population.

Speaker 5 (32:31):
This one has been difficult for me because so many
people had got out here and this is their first
time dealing with something like this. Meanwhile, I've been doing
this for a number of years, right, so it's been
very difficult to be honest, this is the first time
I've taken so much of a back seat. But we
need more people invested and involved, and one we want

(32:54):
to create something that if people have the interest to
get involved in this, that they know how to deploy
and how to serve people in this in this space
and to get them a level of training for sure
to be able to deal with it. Because like even
with the young people, like there are a lot of
lessons We're not just moving stuff out of people houses. Again,

(33:16):
you're dealing with the risk of mold, airborne you know, uh, chemicals,
and you know, all types of stuff that could affect
them health wise. So we're even adding like a pre
pre deployment training to where yeah, to get them calculated
we're using the different pumps and and all the different

(33:36):
stuff and to give them things to watch out for.
We created a whole system with dispatch to where folks
are calling and you know, taking these calls, connecting with people,
seeing what the issue is, and then you know, reporting
back to us and sending us here and sending us there.
So we're building a lot of pieces of pieces of
this out and a lot of people are for the

(34:00):
first time learning about disaster relief in this in this
form because to be honest, I see a lot of
people on social media that's just like I got a company,
we'll clean your house out like and to me, a
lot of the stuff that we do for this is free.
It's a free a charge. We're not trying to charge nobody.
We just you just lost everything. But you need to

(34:20):
teach people that this ain't an opportunity to just make money,
like just because a lot of people cars are messed up,
or they basement is flooded, and they got a lot
of you know, stuff that now may need to be
thrown away or jumped. And that's what we're trying to
get people in the in the in the mode of

(34:40):
donating their time and services when it's a situation like that.
And to be honest, the the visibility and the attention
you'll get for doing something free or something in kindness
will equate to money for you later, sure, And I
think that's the learning process that it's more frustrating to

(35:02):
me with people just looking at this as a monetary opportunity, right,
So getting people in that mode of service and humanity
to say, it's some old people in this house, broy.
They can sit up here in the hell's this mold
and nobody can help them. And they could be sitting
in their house and it will come out, you know
what I'm saying, Like you have to you have to
be humane in the instances.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Like we can say so much about that unfortunately, but
for me, like I was getting, I got a few
over women calls because Lucas has no face, so I
tend to have my hands on a lot of stuff,
but this is one thing I couldn't.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
I just couldn't. Really, I'm like, I really had to say,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
You know, I did say red Cross or instructures like that,
but they were looking for more so your services, and
I didn't even know, and I wasn't about to call
you at later, so I was uninformed too, and I
felt so bad. So this was the first time I
ever got any cause from my warriors accing for help.
But I'm just like, I don't know, yeah, because I did,
I don't know, but you're just educated me. So thank

(36:02):
you for that, because I would definitely like to have
some contact information or places to send them for the
next time that they call them, because now I don't know,
just wasn't.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
It, and checking back in with them if they still
need help, Like we're still compiling listings and again we're
getting ready to do a more expanded intentional deployment in
the next couple of days, so you know, folks still
need help. We're still encouraging people to because it's people
that are still putting out calls like I still got
water in my basement, so clearly the need is still

(36:33):
there for a bunch of different levels of this. So
we're just trying to be as effective and efficient as
we could be, especially now that a mass of us
are like partnering together and working together, and so yeah,
you know, breaking down those barriers and again I think,
you know, again taking a back seat and allowing the

(36:53):
bigger picture. You know that that has been a huge
piece of this. And because at the end of the day,
in a lot of these spaces, it's a lot of
work that needs to be done and I can't do
it all by myself. But if folks are out there
doing stuff, I want us to be intentional and effective
and efficient at what we're doing, right, And I wanted

(37:15):
to look some a different kind of way because what
I don't want to happen is for people again to
say because then it's not disaster relief. If everybody is
going out there and getting paid to help people in
no instances, it becomes something different. And I show that
to be the reason that people get into this work,
even though it's still helping people. It ain't always gonna
be money to do this, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
And we've done it up to this level for no
money and with no money, So the.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Fact that you done it or you guys are doing
it for no money and going so hard and showing up,
and it's just like a passion about it, Like that
speaks value.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
But it started with training when I work for that company.
That company was like specifically a hard feelings and young
people that was like on probation and parole, right, and
the main thing we did was like we build houses
and do remodeling and stuff like that. But then they
had us take a FEMA training called cert Community Emergency

(38:14):
Response Team Training, which is a FEMA training and it's
for natural disasters. And at the time, I'm like, why
ain't you got us taken it? This makes no sense, right,
But the thing that led me from that moment to this.
Before I took that training, if I saw a car
accident or somebody hurt, I was just like everybody.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
Else, like yeahs up right.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
But as soon as I took that training, I never
did that again. I immediately knew I hopped in the action.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
I knew what to do then.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
So I've been a huge advocate since my early you
know years of taking that train in my early twenties
now leading up to this point where I'm like people
are starting to finally see the value and how ahead
of the curve we are. It's natural disasters all over
the country. And when we do this in other cities
and states, them would be looking at us like, who
are y'all?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
They should be embarrassed, Like they should be embarrassed. It
should be a movement calling them out because that's our money,
you know what I mean. I'm sure that's our tax dollars.
They wrote the proposals up for us, and you're trying
not to give that money to these people.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
That's ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (39:19):
I think a lot of it is that lack of education,
piece of people not knowing the put the part about
how to report or you know, how to even get
those services you know, to them, and by the time
they do come, it's months later, or you know, they
have so little, they're offering so little that people are

(39:40):
just like this one is like we all even need
is to forget it, you know. But I think them
seeing that level of community response a lot of times,
they like the fire in the people and they would
rather if they are are going to operate that way,
they can just get less the training. They can give

(40:01):
more people to training, they can help connect dollars to
us and we can do the work ourselves, and then.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
They need to they need to just disburse that nice
amount of money to you guys, because y'all are doing
the work. There's no I mean reason question what y'all
doing with the money or things like y'all doing this
for free. But you just said lack of education. So
I'm kind of gonna turn this just a little bit
because Okay, so I attended an event by Sir Quentin

(40:28):
at the Rebels with the Rebels shout out to shout
out to them, and there was a kidney a Loopus
kidney event which is Loopers of the kidneys was just
called Loopus the Fridays or whatever. I'm bringing this up
because the CEO, the president of please don't get me,

(40:49):
but it's the Loop the Kidney Foundation. I forgot what name,
but it's a kidney foundation. He's the president, right. He
had no knowledge about how what kidney donors go through
or any of that. So I'm bringing that up because
you said the lack of education. So I'm sure the
people that's sitting up there has no knowledge how it works.

(41:10):
But he took it upon himself to he got a call,
he didn't send out his team. He went to all
three hospitals to hand out everything, and all these people
that was on dialysis and everything else. It was just
a sad moment for them, and it was a sad
moment for him, which he documented everything, and he was
going in thinking that he was doing something good, which

(41:31):
he was doing something good. But people are waiting on kidneys,
you know what I'm saying. So at that point he
started educating himself on what it takes to be a
kidney donor, and long story short, he decided to be
a kidney donor. But I'm just saying to say, like
a lot of those people that's sitting in those shares,
those presidents of see You, that's ringing that company, has
no knowledge of what's going on down there.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
And he took it upon himself to do that.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
And now he's more educated, and now he because he
would never have donated a kidney, but now he advocates
or donating a kidney. So it is really the lack
of education that the people are sitting up there that
has no idea what's going on down here as to
why they probably not even moving the way they need
to do or.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Some people, just especially when you talk about positions of
leadership or authority, a lot of times there are people
who this ain't something they have to deal with. It's
not that's too emergency to them because they ain't going
through it right so emotionally, it's a lot of people
who and unfortunately a lot of services and a lot
of government have that kind of attitude where they can

(42:31):
wait like it's not that big of a deal, like
come back tomorrow, come back next week, come back next month,
while the person that's going through it like I might
not survive till tomorrow, like it's hurt, you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Struggling, like it's dire to us.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
But for a lot of a lot of times, it's
not that pressing of an issue unless a certain group
or a certain population.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Of people is like, hey, you know, we need this,
and then they jump to it.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
But for the most part, unfortunately, a lot of the
attitude is it's not like a fire under them, you
know what I'm saying, or urgency to get this done tomorrow.
And that's why the community response is for a lot
of this stuff is so important because we know what
it's like. Some of us have gone through this same stuff.
Some of our family members are going through with stuff,

(43:21):
and so we understand the urgency.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Of it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
So it's just so sadis making my head like prouned
of uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
But no, I feel like the people that's sitting higher
up and need training in their own company because they
need to have emotions. They need to understand what people
are feeling. They need to be sympathetic, they need to
see what's going on, whether it's disastrous and healthcare whatever,
because like you said, you are out of touch of everything,
so you are literally making decisions off of what you
see in your face. You don't get to see the

(43:54):
things that's touching your emotions. So I do feel like
every company sometimes should get off that chair and do
the footwork sales instead of sitting their team out, so
you can be more educated and more in tune with
your community. What role can the community play and making
sure people with autoimmune diseases are not left behind in
time of crisis.

Speaker 5 (44:15):
One of the things that I really like, especially for
like people who connect with me and my pages and
what I do, is a lot of times they will
refer or suggest somebody who need the help so you
may know somebody who has those issues.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Right.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
So a lot of times when people are reporting, they're
not necessarily reporting for theirself. They like this lady over
here got X, Y and Z going on. So people
who have that knowledge of people who may have those conditions,
and these people might not be on the internet, or
they might not know who to contact the call, but
somebody is calling on their behalf like, no, they really
need it over here because this is what their situation is.

(44:54):
So a lot of times you just need an advocate,
somebody to know that you that you what your situation
and to speak up for you for sure. So we
try to drive that a lot of times is you know,
if you know someone who may need our help more
so than just somebody who's just chilling at home and
they got a husband and they able bodied, right of

(45:15):
course they need help too, But we really want to
get to the people who are in the worst conditions,
you know what I'm saying, because it's more dire for them,
you know what I mean. So a lot of times
it just take and you know, the community does very
well with it most of the time of advocating for
people that they know.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Are in situations that need you know that real attention
in service, real quick.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, that is true, and that for those that do
not know that's watching this show. A lot of pharmacies,
well I ain't gonna say a lot. Wells, I had
experience with them. If you are out of your medication,
whatever the reason, maybe you do need to explain to
them and it needs to beat the pharmacists that you
are talking to, they will give you just enough for

(46:04):
a couple of days to try to get by, depending
on what the situation is. I have done it myself.
I lost my medication and so they gave me a
couple you know, until I can go to the doctor.
Things at that nature. So if anybody is out of
any type of medication or need anything, you can go
to Walgreens. I'm sure other pharmacuts does it, but I
have my experience with Walgreens that they will give you

(46:25):
additional medication until you're able to get here.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
So that tells me that we need to ask you
to this collective and you can be because again I
don't have I'm a healthy person, right, you know. I
know a lot of people with issues and stuff like that,
but I have no idea to even consider or no,
So you can be that voice to let us know
what's missing and what we need to be doing for

(46:50):
in those instances because I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, no problem. I would love to just have to
earn out things. And it's also people that come out
to you, actually I need to get what this event
I was at yesterday, They actually come out. And it's
also places that you can go to to get like
your blood pressure took and things of that nature like

(47:13):
your vidals and things took that come out to you.
And I was lupus and kidney disease by doctor Gabby
and the running Rebels is the ones who host it.
And the guy that I was telling you about is
the president of National Kidney Foundation. Okay, there you guys

(47:33):
go that's that's the correct name. But yeah, and I'm
able to do that too. I have all my tools
to take take vitals because your bidels will tell you like, yall,
you need to go to the hospital now, you need
treatment right now, or you stable your blood pursure highr
blod pressure low, you know your rate, whatever the case
may be. Just something simple that'll let you know, like
you go be okay, or you really need to go
to and it's a lot of clinics out here too

(47:55):
that will see you for free for those who do
not have insurance.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
I did just want to put that out there. So
looking ahead, what's next for your organization and for Milwaukee?
I shouldn't just even say Milwaukee, because you guys go
state to state. So I'm gonna say to the United States,
We're just gonna make you worldwide because that's what y'all
guys been doing when it comes to disastrous.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
And community health.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Can you repeat that?

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Looking ahead, what's next for your organization and the United
States when it comes to disastrous in the community health.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
So one again is strengthening our model locally and then
strengthening our totality of our model when we go out nationally,
and then again getting the powers that be the governor,
our state officials, our city officials, and our county executive

(48:54):
and our county officials to include and be to develop
something because they have a conversation with David Crowley about
is there an opportunity or a way that we can
be merged with the regular government entities and their response
because and be honest with you, there are instances where

(49:16):
the government reach out to us and say, hey, this
is what's going on.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
Can y'all you know, go and handle this, or can
we make referrals to y'all.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
But it needs to be formal, because we can't just
be again if we're not supported and if we don't
have the materials and stuff to handle not only the
response we're getting on our own, but I added response
from government who like, we got a list of people
who need hell too, So that needs to be made formal,
and it needs to be intentional about the support and

(49:46):
shout out to like different folks at the county and otherwise,
like they're making like they're like, hey, we got this
part of the cleaning materials, like can we send it
to y'all? Ay, we gotta have somebody call me like, hey,
we got a a water pump that we ain't using this,
or that we got these boots, we got these shovels,
and or what do y'all need? And I send them

(50:07):
a list and they're like, we'll look we'll look at
it and make some calls and try to get y'all
what y'all need. So it's happening on an individual basis,
but it needs to be something formal.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
It needs to be some money in the bank, some
supplies the storage room, and you guys are going out right,
that's how it needs to be. And I don't see
why y'all haven't got that yet, you know what I'm saying,
I don't understand. But whatever it is that y'all need
to do, I really suggest a y'all continue doing that
because y'all do need that.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
And I do know that.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
A lot of these big corporations, home depot, cousins, whatever,
they have a certain amount of money to donate. It's
just the times that they're giving out. So you write
up a letter. I forgot the time frames, but you
write up a letter and they donate the money to you,
to you and your organization. So every big organization have
a certain amount of dollars that they donate to organization to.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
Take the intention and the person with that skill set
to help develop that. Because to be honest, like I'm
more again, this is the first time I'm taking more
of a back seat and more of the time that
I'm doing more administrative and organizing than doing the physical work.
Like every other time I'm out there in the house
is moving stuff. You know, that's still important too, it's

(51:20):
more important right now for the bigger picture, especially because
of the opportunity that's there. So again helping trying to
merge all those things and make sure that the support
is there, that the plans and the strategy is in place,
that the right people are involved and part of it,
and making all the different connections in government or whatever.

(51:42):
But I'm terrible when it comes to securing money. So
there's a person who's like tackling that and going doing
the fundraising. There's a person that's leading the teams and
going out to the houses, like we're being super strategic
and taking on what our strengths are and that once
and we all bosses like because.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Some people do not.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
This is a little bit, it's not a little bit
off the top of but some people do not know
how to play their role. They feel like if they're
in the back, see they're not in the front front line,
that they are not impoorant. You are just as important
because without the full circle, we don't do anything.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
I believe in giving credit to where it's due if
you are to hear the work. And again, like in leadership,
a lot of people try to hog and gate keep
the leadership role. Right, A lot of stuff I can't
be a part of only because I'm bigger than the thing, right,
And a lot of people recognize that. They like, we

(52:37):
want you here, you should be here, But to be honest,
putting you here with with actually suppress you.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
You know what I'm saying. I understand that too.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
But in any space, in most spaces, outside of what
I do, I have no problems stepping back and letting
the next person, especially I believe in the leader should
be the person who has the best ability to So
if that's me, if that's you, I don't care.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
I care about the outcome for sure.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
This is a space where we have really been intentional
about getting on the same page of that because we
all are bosses and are running things and skilled in
our own separate fields.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
But for this we need to be We need to
be a glove. You know what I'm saying. We can't
just have everybody running off doing it all. That's that's
a silo. Still, you know what I'm saying. We're trying
to do it collab.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Are you Guys are definitely doing the work. You just
gotta you're moting right now, You're doing a master that's
what it is. You're creating a master is you know,
you got to take it apart put it back together together.
If you can give one message of hope to those
living with lubizard, any autoimmune diseases, who feels forgotten in
moments like this, what would it be man?

Speaker 5 (53:45):
I would say that hope is coming. And like I said,
flood hoope dot Org that that don't just mean hope
during and after the flood that we're experiencing. Now, we're
trying to flood the community with that hopeing up to
people's houses in their time and need, not asking for anything,
just simply asking how can we serve you in the

(54:07):
worst moments in people's lives that gives them that hope? Right,
So for people in that specific circumstance, again, it's already added.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
You already just did the spiel about who you want
to listen, I'm not playing.

Speaker 5 (54:21):
We are trying to have things in place to where
this city and where the need is going to be filled,
and however we need to build to make that happen
in the in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
That's what I'm about.

Speaker 5 (54:36):
So again, I just encourage people to have patience, but
also continue to have that hope because we coming it
don't matter.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
What ain't happening before.

Speaker 5 (54:46):
We were trying to get it to where everybody's included,
everybody's thought about, everybody like, we have a plan that
works for the bigger the bigger picture.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
So it's coming.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
That is sound. I can't even say nothing after that.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
But the people that you know did get their houses
cleaned out, you already know what it feels like if
you're healthy enough, and people that have time on the hand,
come reach out to line and see how you guys
can help, because it's gonna take a community to get
all this stuff together.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
And I'm sure I appreciate what it is that you
do even know.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
I wasn't personally affected by it, but I can't say
I wasn't personally affected by it because I was affected
by it what my people called me and I could
not help them.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
I was just like, oh, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (55:30):
That made me kind of feel kind of crappy and
the inside. But for those that are taking medication or
need medication, you definitely go to a Walgreens.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
You can try other pharmacies, which I'm not sure of.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I do know there are shelters that keep medications that
people take for any autoimmune diseases that are available for free.
That's for sure. And then it's just like for our
next time. If it's the next time, I don't care.
If car breakdown, you do need to have a different bag.

(56:04):
You know what I mean, I have a different bag.
You do need to have an emergency bag. That's what
I'll call the emergency back. Yeah, so a medication medication
early so weak, you know, close or whatever case may be.
Just like you have, you know, if your car break down,
what they call them yellow things like a what y'all
call them kids, If your car break down.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
You have them in your car.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I don't know what it is either, but have an
emergency bag for when you are on medication like that
in our backup in ventilators and things of that nature too.
So that's just something that you guys can look into.
We can drop those tags. Tomes gonna drop those tags.
I just hope the city is like trying or getting

(56:43):
in that mold to try to like heal, because I know,
to lose everything that can.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
That's that is life changing.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
That's the present that if you already got an autoimmune
disease that's flaring up everything the land, you on a hospital,
all types of things like that. So you know, if
you guys are still living in Reading, you guys are healthy.
Just be strong, like you said, help is coming and
go get checked out. Because people don't know when they
are affected by mode. You don't know, you know what

(57:10):
I mean, You don't know until you don't know, So
go get.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Checked to see.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
You know, if you got affected by mold or anything
like that, it definitely can would tell in your your
vitols and your yearn and all of those things, breathing
tests and all of those things.

Speaker 5 (57:26):
I'll even also add that I saw about half a
week or a week ago a report that there was
some sewage dump in the and so people don't go
back to business as usual. There was some sewage runoff
and speel into the lake to where uh, there's a
number of like parasites and a bunch of different taxes

(57:47):
and stuff in that water, to where they're trying to
alert people to don't just go back and chill at
the lake front, like it's real things happening that you
need to be aware of.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
So and I don't know nothing about this so because
you have all updates, where should we start, like monitoring
whether disaster is things is going on in the community.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
We're channel with Facebook.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
So I'm gonna do the like we do our best
to inform people, so com Force or my page we
have developed flood Hope dot org will have them make
a Facebook page, so there'll be some central things that
we put out where people can go and get this information.
What I will do too COVID and some other some

(58:32):
other instances that we've had. The Health Department has been
super good about reaching out.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
Back and really like.

Speaker 5 (58:41):
Being collaborative with a lot of stuff that we do
to make sure if it's something that needs to get
out to people, that they're assisting us and doing that
or that we can lean on them. So that might
be something I need to do with this in collaboration
with what the piece you bring to give people resources
and other information for for that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Because again, like.

Speaker 5 (59:03):
We don't we can't think of everything right, and especially
if it's something that don't affect us. So and it's
not that we are excluding people or not thinking about
those people, it's just sometimes when something is not affecting
you or something is like especially in an emergency situation,
you just going for what you know, right, So we

(59:23):
want to be as efficient and effective. So we have
our National Disaster Relief page hopefully flud flood dot org,
which is an off site website. Hopefully we'll make a
Facebook page of that, but then conference on my page.
Our pages you can for sure go to if there's
something happening, whether it's a natural disaster, something going on

(59:44):
in the city. Yeah, you know, we try to make
sure people are as informed as possible.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
And for y'all to be such a small group, I
don't even want to call y'all small because y'all not.
The work y'all doing is not small, Like how y'all
brought that baby home. Y'all are doing some amazing things
and y'all are on it just like this. So I
just hope and pray that y'all get whatever it is
that y'all need to get paperwork, so y'all can just

(01:00:13):
be one big old organization.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
My end goal is to put black people in a
position right.

Speaker 5 (01:00:22):
So it's not a lot of careers and people don't
have hope in a lot of stuff, right, so they
try to all go for the same things, but we've
been able to transition that into being forefronts and like
the violence prevention field, the disaster really feel where these
are residents. These are former people who are dealing with
domestic violence, people who dealt with losses and gun violence,

(01:00:45):
and now they're leading the work and actually employed in
some of these seals.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
So I want to be able to empower, educate, train
people to where now they can expose themselves to opportunities
at some point.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
You know, I've done this work for free for a
lot a lot of years.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
But what I'm you know, I'm starting to reach that
goal to where I'm enabling people to be the best
version of themselves, to where it turns into an opportunity
or a career or you know, self sustainability, right, And
that's what our community is missing. It's a lot of
people that was committing crimes with me back in the day.

(01:01:24):
That's like, ro, I see what you're doing, bro, Like
I would do that. I actually love what you're doing,
But I got kids, you know, I got bills at home, Like,
I'm not going to be out there risk in my
life and doing X, Y and Z for free.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Well, we're creating a path to where you may not
have to even though I had to for a long time.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
We were getting this to a point where we can
leave do this work and be compensated for that is
so dope.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
And you did bring up gun violence, and I want
to get more into that, like intentionally, when I see it,
I support it because the incident that happened with my son,
so that's very near and dear to my heart.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
But I haven't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I'm just not there yet, but I do want to
be more involved in that as well. You got any
last things that you want to say, No, I.

Speaker 5 (01:02:08):
Mean, this is gonna be your intro you in the
chat now, so make sure you backtrack and see what
we've been doing and you can kind of get a feel.
This chat is similar to our conference chat and how
we do stuff. It's specific to disaster release. But once
you get a feel for it and you you hop
in and we start to piece you in and you

(01:02:31):
can you can come over to the other side when
you're ready and uh and we'll we'll, you know, we'll
it's all right cool.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
I'm definitely gonna look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
I'm definitely gonna look at it and I'm definitely gonna
put my two cents in where I.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
See it is fit or not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
Hey, I just want to recap on what I did
yesterday you guys again, I went to loops and kidney disease.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Meeting with doctor Gabby.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
She's at Freightered, she does the transplants and they collaborated
with the National Kidney Foundation. I'm saying it's because they
have an event coming up and I will update you guys,
but I believe it's on the twenty fifth. But again,
I will update you guys. Please do teg and cir
Quentin so he can put the update information in here.

(01:03:27):
The event the next event that well, this event was
to just educate people on being a kidney donor. You
don't have to just have loopis in order to have
something wrong with your kidneys. It could be a number
of things that you can have, like your everyday life
into much saw in too much sugar, like just your
habits into too much pop. Everything is in moderation that
you do which can affect your kidneys. So the next

(01:03:50):
time that they're coming is that day or a different date,
but they're gonna be coming to do a free skin
so they're gonna let you know if it's blood or
protein spilling in your urine, so like a coffee grain, right,
anything that comes out of that, that means something is
wrong with your kittens. And then they're going to refer
you to a rheuma to neprologists, uh doctor, so you

(01:04:14):
can see what that looks like. Because if you check
all the boxes off to where you need a biop see,
then they're going to do a biopsy and you kind
of like go near. So you don't even have to
have an autoimmune disease for something to be wrong with
your kidneys. And sometimes most people don't know and some
it's from stage one, two, three, four, and five, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
So that is really dope.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
If you have never thought about it, or you got
somebody in your family, or you just have a bad
diet or any or you just want to be curious
about it, It is totally free. You're gonna walk out
there knowing something that you're good, or you're gonna walk
out there knowing something like, Okay, I caught this, you
know ahead of time, or you can try to get
a handle on it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
So I appreciate you guys. If you guys can share
this information.

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
Come.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
It is totally free. It's totally a double event because
who's doing things like that like your kidneys, right, So
make sure you come out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
All the tags are going to be in the comments below.
Please reach out if you need any help, if somebody
else need any help. If you need any additional medication,
please do go to Walgreens. I'm gonna do a couple
of calls tonight to see if it's any other pharmacies
that do it. But Walgreens for sure will give you
additional medication depending on what the circumstances are, and I'm
sure they.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
Are aware of that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
If not, all you have to do is explain, but
explain to the pharmacists, not the people. That's the regular
people are Again, thank you for tuning in. We are
here every Wednesday, asked six thirty on our platforms. If
you miss today, please go to Lucas has on Face
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will respond back until next time