"A Day in a State of Emergency" as seen through the eyes of Hanna Kovel.

Shalom to all of my Pittsburgh friends,

First, allow me to apologize for the lengthy period that I haven't kept in touch with you. I simply haven't had time. Here one incident follows another, the problems and issues requiring attention continue to grow and there are not enough hours in the day, or night to deal with them all. Anyways, in a brief moment of quiet I decided to write and share with you, from a personal viewpoint what I am going through these days.

My day begins at 8:00AM (unless of course there was an alert, or G-d forbid an attack, or like today word came that one of our soldiers from Karmiel has fallen in action, then my day can begin as early as 5:00AM). The urgent problems that have come up over night are waiting for me as I arrive at my office. Today is the 28th day of the war and we have since established a well-organized crisis response in which everyone knows his or her new task so that we can deal with the exceptional incidents that usually occur during the morning hours. This morning we received word that a third soldier from Karmiel was killed in Lebanon. The army is on its way to inform his father. His mother is with family in Netanya. We immediately begin arranging the house for the "Shiva"; unfortunately, we have much experience in setting up tables and chairs, providing water and awnings against the sun, food for the immediate family throughout the week, a psychologist and social worker. No one is sure when to visit the family. Once again standing powerless in front of another family, I don't know how much strength we have left.

At the same time, I know that I will have to deal with critical problem facing the family. The father has just undergone a nephrectomy (kidney removal) because of a tumor and their home was damaged during a rocket attack this past Friday making it inhabitable. Where can they take the father? The damage adjusters have yet to estimate the damages (there's no surprise there since more than 300 homes were damaged in last Friday's attack and there's no way a staff of 12 adjusters sent from Jerusalem can get to everywhere). Although this is a governmental matter, the average resident doesn't know anyone from the Ministry of Finance. He only knows us. I start making phones calls to the Tax Authority while also looking for alternative quarters for the family and their ill father. I get another message from a mother with three children who returned home after spending 20 days with generous families who we arranged to host her and the three kids. Her policeman husband has been drafted since the war began. She worked as a housekeeper but hasn't seen a paycheck in a month. She's hysterical. I understand her. Three young children ages 5, 3 and 1 years old can drive you crazy in normal times, now for sure! I send her a food package, diapers and some games. During the day, a city social worker will stop in for a visit.

Now I start dealing with larger issues. Rina, who's responsible for distributing hot meals to the city's elderly and handicapped, informs me that 2,600 meals won't be sufficient she needs another 200. She also tells me that we need another two teams of people to distribute the meals. Yesterday we discovered five shelters we hadn't known about. We are already caring for 548 shelters. Most are private ones but if we don't care for them, no one will. Even strong families are loosing strength. Everyone wants us to do everything for them. Is this the time to educate them? Where do you draw the line? I give an order to take care of everyone.

At 9:30, I have my first meeting with Adi and the Crisis Response Team. Everyone is packed into the underground shelter. Everyone presents their reports, raises problems and talks about what more can be done. Today we decided to open up day camps for the children in shelters located at schools around the city. The kids are going crazy at home and driving their parents crazy as well. We have to do something to lessen the pressures. Adi decides to open five more day camps.

After the meeting, I stayed behind to meet with the staffs from the Education Department and Community Center. There's a problem, half of the counselors have already been called up and in order to care for 500 kids, 100 in each camp, we need 50 counselors. We also need equipment, games and food

The shortage of counselors is the most critical problem. Maybe the army can help. A team heads out to prepare the shelters

Shula and her department [Social Services Administration] distribute daily food packages with canned goods and other non-perishables. Their building looks like a Giant Eagle warehouse stocked with canned foods , water, diapers (don't forget all sizes), toys, and mattresses, etc. In order to meet the demand we divided the city into six neighborhoods. We get to each neighborhood twice a week. We have our regular customers and everyday there are new ones.

We have a staff of five telephone operators who are responsible for receiving the requests from the city's residents and shelters and channeling them to us. Approximately 35,000 residents remained in the city and it seems that everyone wants something.

We also have a staff that handles requests to leave the city, temporarily of course. A number of wonderful families in the center of the country are willing to host us. Nevertheless, after three days as a host family or as a guest most have had enough. Everyone wants a hotel. While the hotels have contributed rooms, they are few and far between. Who do you send first? Last week we sent our elderly. This week we decided to send single parents with children.  Was this a correct decision? There's no time to think about it. You have to go with the flow. 

At 12 o'clock Adi, Levia and I head out to visit a family in mourning who've just lost their son in Lebanon. You take a few deep breathes and enter the house. We all sit around crying with father and his family waiting for the mother to arrive. She collapses at the doorstep. The last thing she knew was that her son was getting ready for exams at the university.  Why didn't they tell her he had been called up? Heartrending screams. Everyone is weeping. Before we leave, I ask one of the relatives to make sure that the funeral takes place at night. Usually they don't bomb us at night.  Hopefully there won't be anyone else injured

The sirens go off just as the teams start distributing hot meals. Everyone runs to the closest shelter and hear the bombs fall. This time it was close.  At the nearby junction, thankfully, no one was injured.

I won't torture you with an hour-by-hour description. Now it's 5:30 in the afternoon. At 6 we begin to distribute water, more mattresses and more fans to the shelters. Today we only had three air raid sirens and one attack near the city.

It is therapeutic for me to write. At the same time, I wanted to share with you a typical day for me.  The past 28 days have been similar. We're tired but we still have strength to hold out until the army finishes it's job.  It's not enough what they've achieved so far. From Karmiel's stand point the situation has gotten worse. We've become a city under a Hezbollah siege and if this doesn't change, our situation will become even worse.

Today we received word of the increased contribution from you. We want to thank you with all our heart not only for the contribution but mainly for your good friendship. 

Sincerely yours,

Hanna