NEW CONCORD -- A native of the area returned to her Florida home Thursday after two weeks of relief work on the beleaguered island nation of Haiti.
Mindy Carder Budden returned to her home at Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. on Thursday morning, said her mother, Delores Carder.
"She is exhausted," Carder said. "Just plain exhausted."
Budden, a registered nurse, was one of a group of nurses and physicians from Ft. Walton Beach Medical Center to respond after a Jan. 12 earthquake left widespread death and destruction in its aftermath.
But it wasn't her first taste of disaster, her mother said.
She had responded to four other disasters, including the Katrina hurricane and the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
"She said this is the worst disaster she had ever encountered," Carder said.
Media accounts were not exaggerated; conditions in the country are extreme.
"For the first few days, [the team] was sleeping on the ground with only sleeping bags for shelter," Carder said.
"It took them a week for their medical equipment to arrive. Until then, they were getting equipment from other [volunteers] to do their jobs."
A graduate of John Glenn High School, Carder Budden has lived in Florida for about 22 years.
For many years, she worked in the emergency room of Ft. Walton Beach Medical Center. Now, she works in critical care, Carder said.
Working disasters not only proves to be physically exhausting, it also can be emotionally draining.
"After 9/11, her husband didn't want her to go on relief missions because it took her quite a while to get over that.
"But she just had to go ... because that the type of person she is."
(jlowe@daily-jeff.com)
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