Providing help in the face of disasters

Many on our campus have asked how they can do something to help in the face of an unprecedented series of natural disasters in our country and beyond. UNMC is directing all those who wish to donate to consider giving to the Red Cross.

These tragedies have affected many — including co-workers right here at UNMC.

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Here are a couple of examples of UNMC employees who have been impacted by these recent tragic events.

Jasmine Marcelin, M.D., started at UNMC Sept. 1. On Sept. 18, Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm, hit her home island of Dominica in the Caribbean. “A once lush, green island is now brown and desolate,” Dr. Marcelin said. In her childhood village of Loubiere, she has heard reports of entire homes washed into the ocean.

After 48 excruciating hours with no contact, she got a text from her parents that said they were alive.

There are few official news reports, but more than 20 have been confirmed dead, many more missing, and the few photos of the destruction coming out of Dominica are heartbreaking. Dr. Marcelin said she has heard reports that survivors are in dire need of food, potable water and other supplies.

Dr. Marcelin’s co-workers in the dvision of infectious diseases and her HIV clinic team have started a collection to help aid Dominica.

She is scheduled to go to the Caribbean island of Antigua this week for a previously-planned trip to her medical school, but does not know if she will be able to make it to her home island to reunite with her family.

“The despair and stress experienced by family members living abroad like myself is unfathomable,” Dr. Marcelin said.

Antonia Correa, outreach project specialist in the College of Public Health, said Hurricane Maria has brought similar destruction to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Power and water are out. Crops were flattened. Streets are still rivers. Communities are still isolated.

And Correa hasn’t heard from her family.

“It is devastating not to know about your loved ones,” she said.

In some areas, the full extent of damage is still unknown. While in others, like Texas and Florida, the news has sunken in. And the months, perhaps years, of recovery have begun.

UNMC is directing employees who wish to help to consider donating to the Red Cross.