Hurricane Katrina: Canadian Red Cross team to support American colleagues
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Canadian Red Cross volunteers embark on DND flight headed to Houston, Texas. | |
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They will be working alongside their American Red Cross counterparts—providing safe shelter, warm meals and comfort to some of the 135,000 evacuees staying in 470 Red Cross shelters.
The American Red Cross has launched its largest response ever to a single disaster in its 125 year history, and volunteers make up 96% of their entire workforce.
Sandy Reynolds from Sydney, Nova Scotia was part of the first team of 25 volunteers dispatched on a Department of National Defence flight from Trenton, Ontario on September 3.
Reynolds, a Red Cross volunteer for the last decade, only received the call confirming that he would go to the US the day before and was able to delay his work contract for the three weeks.
“Basically I want to help the people in need in whatever little way that I can,” said Reynolds. Reynolds doesn’t just volunteer for the Red Cross—he commits about 30 hours a month to the local YMCA, the mental health foundation at a local hospital and the Bereaved Families Association.
Although he is very experienced, having managed disaster relief for Cape Breton for three years and responded to several house fires—he knows Hurricane Katrina will provide new challenges. “The extent of this disaster is like nothing I have ever seen.”
After Reynolds returns home in three weeks, his wife Carol will head to the US for a volunteer stint with the Red Cross. “We prefer to go one after another, so our house and pet are looked after.”
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Bridget Brown, Canadian Red Cross volunteer. |
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“I was inspired to volunteer with the Red Cross after I interviewed Jean-Pierre Taschereau, a Red Cross relief worker who had returned from a mission in Sudan,” remarked Brown.
A week after that interview, Brown took the training to become a Red Cross disaster services volunteer. “The extraordinary thing about the Red Cross is that it doesn’t matter where you come from or what needs exist—there is always a place for volunteers to help in a little way.”
Oneil Ouellet, a retired CN worker from Edmundston, New Brunswick, has volunteered with the Red Cross for 13 years—coordinating emergency and disaster response training and providing first aid instruction.
“I am really anxious to go on my first American Red Cross assignment,” said Ouellet. “I am ready to drive a truck, work in a shelter or do anything else to contribute to the relief efforts.” Ouellet has skills in electrical and plumbing work and has trained in Crisis Intervention Stress Management. He also wonders if his ability to speak French might come in handy in Louisiana.
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Oneil Ouellet (left) and Ruth Brumwell at the airport headed to the US in support of Hurricane Katrina relief operations. | |
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During the coming months, the Canadian Red Cross expects to send at least 100 volunteers to work with the American Red Cross.
Although these volunteers are from different walks of life—such as retired people, administrators, firefighters and homemakers—they all share the same commitment to humanitarian action, compassion and desire to help their neighbours in the US. They may not receive monetary compensation but their value is truly priceless.
The Canadian Red Cross is only sending its trained, experienced disaster services volunteers to the US in support of Hurricane Katrina. Canadians who want to find out about how to become a disaster services volunteer should contact their local Red Cross office.
