Volunteers came to rescue in year of disasters

Even with a rash of disasters that happened nationwide in 2017, the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the American Red Cross through its volunteers, donations and blood collection efforts has been able to help out with every request for disaster assistance it has received this year.

“Fortunately, we have more than 1,700 volunteers in Northeast Ohio, and a majority of them are trained disaster workers,” said Jim McIntyre, regional communications officer.

According to McIntyre, the Northeast Ohio Chapter deployed 119 disaster workers first to Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey, then to Florida to assist with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands to help residents recover from Hurricane Maria.

“One percent of the workforce was utilized outside of Northeast Ohio for hurricanes, wildfires and shootings,” he said. “So that left more than 1,500 workers to stay at home and responds to disasters here with the vast majority of them being home fires.”

Workers who were deployed to assist on a national level have certain skill sets such as shelter

management, mass care, feeding, and logistics.

“In a massive operation, we employed all four of the emergency response vehicles that are dedicated to Northeast Ohio to the disasters,” McIntyre said. “We deployed people to California in response to the wild fire and we even sent a staff member to Las Vegas in response to that horrible shooting. It just kept coming.”

Fires show need for assistance

McIntyre found it unbelievable the amount of backto-back disasters that occurred in 2017 and credits the fact that there are 1,700 volunteers as the reason they were not only able to respond to all national disasters but also were able to respond to all the home fires which averaged about three a night in the Greater Cleveland area.

McIntyre was not able to provide a breakdown of fires by county but he was able to provide them by Red Cross Chapters.

“There were 193 incidents responded to by the Lorain chapter (Erie-Homeland Chapter) so it will be almost 200 and I’m sure it will be over 200 by the end of 2017 with nearly 850 people affected,” McIntyre said.

He said there was not much flooding to report this year so there wasn’t the need to open any shelters which means the overwhelming majority of their activity at home has been the home fires.

The Red Cross provides immediate financial assistance to people displaced by home fires.

“It’s money they can use whatever way is most beneficial to them. Sometimes they use it for shelter, but most people have someplace else they can go, a family member or a friend, so they are able to use the funds to replace clothing or what they deem fit for their particular situation,” McIntyre said. “We also bring them comfort kits with personal items.”

McIntyre describes a time he rode along to a home fire with a worker. Someone had set a vehicle ablaze in the middle of the night, causing a house to catch fire leaving four adults and seven kids burned out of their home.

“Just giving them a toothbrush when they just lost everything meant so much. I’m getting goose bumps just now just thinking about that day,” he said. “You don’t know what you take for granted until you don’t have it anymore and that is what a fire does, it just takes everything away.”

He also finds it remarkable that people who have the training to help others during what he described as their darkest hours get out of their beds in the middle of the night to go help people without getting paid.

Additionally, the Red Cross has been able to teach over 50,000 people this year first-aid, CPR and lifesaving skills.

Additionally, the chapters help military members get home in case of an emergency.

“We didn’t miss a beat thanks to the devotion of those who didn’t deploy but stayed home to the help the people that needed it here and thanks to the generosity of donors the amount of money that was donated to the Red Cross during those disasters were remarkable,” McIntyre said.

He estimated that nearly $400 million was for Hurricane Harvey relief, allowing the agency to not only provide all the services they normally perform during a disaster, but was able to provide families affected with funds.

“So much money was designated for that disaster, and we honor donor intent, the Red Cross was able to donate $400 per family to more than 573,000 households as of Oct. 31,” McIntyre said. “That’s a total of $229 million and they are still processing applications.”

Blood still needed

In addition to disaster relief, the Red Cross has been working on blood donations.

Christy Peters, Red Cross’s external communication manager, said the organization normally sees blood donations increase after a natural disaster, and they did see that increase happen following the natural disasters this year.

The reasons the blood donations increase following disasters, Peters said, is because people want to help and this is something they can do that doesn’t cost money.

“We normally see people step up following disasters, however the need for blood is constant, so even when there is not a disaster we need people to donate,” Peters said. “So I guess the message is we saw people step forward but we need people to continue to donate especially now that the weather is starting to turn and its the holiday season.”

Peters said that if someone gave for the first time because of a natural disaster, the Red Cross encourages them to do it again and make it a regular habit.

“You can give blood every 56 days and so we are looking for people who gave for the first time or for the first time in a long time to continue to give in a 56-day cycle,” she said

Peters said there is currently a critical need for type O Negative and B Negative so donors of those types are especially needed.

“Type O Negative is a universal donor and be transfused to anyone so we obviously have a higher demand for that and B Negative there is also a critical need for that as well,” Peters said.

The Northeast Ohio Red Cross Chapter currently has an incentive that it is giving to donors. Those who give blood at any blood drive across the Northeast Ohio region through Jan. 7 will be given a long-sleeved Red Cross T-shirt.

To find a blood donation site, visit www. redcrossblood.org and search by ZIP code.