Treading Water: A Social Worker's Personal Narrative

Authors

  • Thomasine Heitkamp Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota

Abstract

I joined thousands of other community volunteers who were attempting to prevent an epic flood during the spring of 1997 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The volunteer fight was strong, but the battle was lost and the flood resulted in 3.6 billion dollars in damage. This paper describes the author's professional social work and personal response to a natural disaster. It will provide a general description of how disaster evacuation and recovery occurred. It will also describe my experiences as a victim/survivor of the flood, including conflicts I experienced in balancing my personal responsibilities with my professional obligations to assist in times of public emergencies.Copyright of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping is theproperty of Cleveland State University and its content may not be copied oremailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyrightholder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, oremail articles for individual use.

Author Biography

Thomasine Heitkamp, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota

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How to Cite

Heitkamp, T. (2014). Treading Water: A Social Worker’s Personal Narrative. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 5(3), 33–42. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/621

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Section

General Submissions