Once in a while Jotuns walk Midgard and when they do we call them by name: Andrew, Sandy, Danny, Irene… Katrina. It was just over ten years ago that she devastated the Gulf Coast. I remember pacing my crappy apartment, watching the news, and feeling totally helpless. The Red Cross was collecting food, water, and clothing, but there was an alternative that we Heathens were able to take advantage of and we called it the Red Hammer.
I collected supplies from my kindred up in Northwest Arkansas (I doubt I could’ve gotten much else in the car) and drove it down to Little Rock where I met up with the Black Bear Kindred. We stood outside a pagan bookstore for a few hours and collected donations from folks in the pagan community who didn’t feel comfortable donating to the Red Cross. Afterwards we drove three vehicles full of donations down to a distribution center in Pine Bluff.
In the weeks that followed we heard horror stories from survivors, those we knew and people on TV. We also started seeing refugees who were part of the diaspora, a good number of whom have not returned home. In the scheme of things, we weren’t saving lives. But I hope our efforts and the generosity of the donors brought some small measure of comfort and relief to those who were suffering.
