About Todd Shea's Disaster Response Experience

I am a singer/songwriter and guitarist by profession. Though I have always used my music to perform humanitarian work and support charitable causes, I had never once thought I would end up taking part in any disaster relief response at an operational level. That changed on 9/11. I was in New York City on September 11th, 2001 to perform at a world famous live music establishment, CBGB's Gallery. Instead, I ended up working at the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers day and night for almost a week, assisting the firefighters, law enforcement officers and workers by delivering needed items and setting up an outdoor pharmacy for rescue workers to get food, water, medicines, clothing, tools, comfort items and anything else they needed to keep them going. Things like ice and contact lens wash and other eye care products, along with certain types of medications, were nowhere to be found until my fellow volunteers and I brought them in. Realizing I had discovered a previously unknown ability for acquiring and coordinating needed items efficiently in a chaotic and disastrous situation, I decided that it was my duty to respond to future disasters if I believed my abilities were truly needed and was convinced that I could be an effective participant in relief efforts. After all, the decision made sense to me. I had already been using my music as an avenue to do good works for many years.

The disaster relief work I’ve been compelled to do has just been a natural step for me, taken in response to the difficult and extraordinary circumstances I’ve found myself and my fellow human beings in- not unlike the inspiration for creating the lyrics of the songs I write as an artistic response to the world I see. For me, responding to disasters is simply an extension of the one of the main purposes of my musical journey- to help those less fortunate and to promote a positive message to young people everywhere that serving a cause greater than the self for the benefit of humanity is the most fulfilling and important thing one can do with their lives.

After 9/11, I continued with my music career (I have written, recorded and released several CDs of original material and have performed my music all over the United States) until a dear friend was victimized by a severe crisis at his substance abuse counseling business. I decided to put my music on hold to help my friend by running the company’s business affairs and trying to save it from ruin. With the help of a dedicated and determined team, that goal was accomplished. The company began making a profit once again and I had personally settled or made long term payment arrangements with over 75 creditors, vendors and government tax entities. Unfortunately, this success was unable to be enjoyed for long, as the company’s survival was not to be tolerated by those who created the crisis unnecessarily. Ultimately, after nearly three years of continued threats and extortion attempts directed at my friend, company employees and me, the company was destroyed (along with my friend's “guaranteed” Constitutional rights to due process) by a power-corrupted and ethically bankrupt attorney general named Eliot Spitzer and a few other unscrupulous individuals who have tainted the integrity of the New York State Attorney General’s Office. I love my country dearly, and this abuse of the overwhelming power and vast resources of the state in destroying the life and life's work of a good and decent man was, in its own way, just as frightening and disturbing a thing to be an eyewitness to as the sight of the World Trade Center towers burning and collapsing after being hit with airliners full of innocent people.

The entire experience of fighting to keep a good company alive in the face of such difficult circumstances was in many ways similar to the disaster response work I have been involved in. If anything good came out of the situation, it was that I learned more about my ability to work in the midst of any type of financial, man-made or natural destruction, and be effective through all the chaotic, stressful and heartbreaking situations that I've witnessed and dealt with firsthand.

When the tsunami happened at the end of 2004, I was just one of the many millions of people shocked and saddened by the unimaginable scenes of devastation and death. I thought back to my experience at 9/11 and with my friend's company, and decided to act. After doing some research on where I could be effective and with the financial help of my music career manger Al Sirowitz, I ended up going to Sri Lanka with a group of volunteers who were building houses for people who lost homes and family members in the tsunami. I also worked at orphanages, spending time with the children and helping out at a medical center run by an amazing woman named Alison Thompson.

Again getting back to my music career, I spent most of the summer of 2005 performing and writing songs in Nashville, Tennessee and New York City. I was also planning a benefit concert for long term tsunami relief projects in Sri Lanka when Hurricane Katrina happened. As a result of my work on 9/11, I was invited to be a logistics coordinator for some New York City area search and rescue teams. I procured the donation of a large truck from The Maryland Department of emergency management and used it to deliver special operations rescue boats to Louisiana. Within 5 days of Hurricane Katrina, I was working on a Navy base on the Mississippi River across from downtown New Orleans with the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne, the US Navy, The Zodiac Boat Company and members of The Battery Park City Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). I spent two weeks assisting the Army, boat crews and search rescue teams by helping to put together the boats and finding any item they needed to perform their mission. I worked with CDRS co-founder Marc O'Regan and CERT team member Jim Kushner (who also came with me to Pakistan) to make supply runs with the truck to supply depots of organizations like FEMA and The Salvation Army. When the flood waters receded in some areas, Jim and I canvassed New Orleans with veterinarians to rescue family pets that were trapped in the homes of evacuees who weren't able to return to their devastated city. I also helped animal rescue teams establish field shelters and hospitals. Jim and I received an official commendation from the President of the Louisiana Animal Control for saving the lives of thousands of dogs and cats through direct rescue in the field and procurement of food, emergency supplies and medicines like rabies vaccine for humans, dogs and cats.

I had spent over a month working for the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and had just returned to Maryland to visit my son on October 8, 2005. I had literally just sat down on the couch and turned on the television. An Earthquake had just caused widespread devastation in Pakistan. I immediately knew that all the experiences I'd had in disaster relief since 9/11 had prepared me to play an effective leadership role in responding to this earthquake. I turned to my son and said "I'm going to Pakistan." Before knowing who I'd be going with, exactly where I would be going, exactly what I'd be doing or how I would get there... I knew with certainty that within days I would be on the ground helping the victims of the earthquake in the most personal and direct way.

I called the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C. and left a message volunteering my expertise as a logistics coordinator for any emergency response team they might become aware of that needed such a person. The next day an official from the embassy returned my call and gave me the phone number of Dr. Atif Malik. Dr. Malik was helping to put together a medical response team called Operation Heartbeat. I have been serving the people harmed by the October 8th earthquake catastrophe to the best of my abilities ever since. And it has truly been an honor to assist the wonderful people of the great and rising nation of Pakistan.

Todd Shea
April 20, 2006