For Cranberry Red Cross volunteer, Hurricane Ian was a different experience
Cranberry Township resident Robert Gurkweitz had helped with nine Red Cross disaster relief efforts over six years, but nothing could prepare him for his drive through Hurricane Ian’s hardest-hit communities.
It was much like his first outreach experience, which, as with Ian, brought him to the city of Fort Myers, Fla., in 2016.
“It was shattering,” he said. “It was very emotional for me. Despite all the reading that I did and the studying that I did, I really wasn’t prepared to experience the heartbreak.”
Gurkweitz said he experienced “secondary trauma,” a phenomenon frequent among disaster relief workers that also impacts first responders, health care providers and other professionals. Experts link secondary trauma to a person’s empathy, and symptoms of this disruptive condition often echo PTSD in a more subdued way.
Gurkweitz cites his sense of reward in helping others recover from disasters as the driving force behind his work, a reward that brought him back to the Red Cross again and again.
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