CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
More Than Just Water

One of the great challenges that will face Krishna Disaster Relief is to respond to all disasters. In a previous chapter I gave an outline on how to respond to disasters anywhere in the world—that is, major disasters.

But here in America we want to respond to many more disasters. The challenges may be numerous. At times there may be a series of disasters happening at once. There are also smaller disasters. Regardless of their frequency or size, somehow we need to arrange for Krishna to come to the rescue. Somehow there has to be participation on our part.

Take, for example, any of the many mini-disasters that occur with all too much frequency. Nature’s destruction isn’t always massive in scale. A forest fire may not be the biggest ever seen. A tornado may only demolish a dozen homes, instead of hundreds. A storm’s fury may only be felt on a local level. But still people are impacted. Still, people suffer.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this but in general terms I feel that in some way, Krishna Disaster Relief should try to help out. This makes perfect sense to me. After all, we are talking about the greatest hero (and the greatest friend).

So how can we respond to these mini disasters? Obviously, many disasters wouldn’t warrant sending out a full-fledged response. A thousand gallons of water may not be the proper answer. But still, a response is necessary. If nothing else, a card of condolence could be sent. A basket of fruit could be sent. A donation to the rural volunteer fire department could be sent. These are the folks that usually bear the brunt of these tragedies. A fifty-dollar check sent to the volunteer fire department along with a short letter from us would be greatly appreciated. We could also enclose a brief summary about who we are. Include our Web site. Who knows, at some later date we just might have to coordinate our relief efforts with them while responding to a much larger disaster.

I just think that it would be a mistake to focus on the big disasters and ignore the small ones. No one else does that so why should we? People will notice. Doing so would definitely send the wrong message.