Busy summer highlights why Red Cross needs you
One weather system, two cities far apart, and stunning images of the fury and force of nature. In both Edmonton, Alberta and Peterborough, Ontario, fierce storms left monumental damage in their wake in mid-July.
In both cities, the Canadian Red Cross was there to help residents displaced from their homes in the hours and days after the storm. After rain and hail pounded Edmonton, Red Cross responders answered emergency calls and helped provide food and lodging to those forced from their homes.
A few days after Edmonton was deluged, the same weather system struck Peterborough with a vengeance, causing severe flooding that damaged an estimated 4,500 homes. Red Cross has been hard at work there, too, helping manage three shelters and distributing 1,700 clean-up kits donated by The Home Depot, Wal-Mart Canada, Zellers and Canadian Tire. Funds are urgently needed in Peterborough to help with the recovery, including ongoing shelter for low-income families whose homes have been condemned due to flood damage.
Of course, there’s no such thing as the lazy days of summer in disaster response organizations, and this season is busy as ever at the Red Cross. In addition to flood recovery operations, the Red Cross is concerned with fires that may threaten towns along the Yukon/Alaska border, and evacuation alerts due to fires in northern Saskatchewan.
As well, recovery operations continue in the areas of B.C. devastated by forest fires last year. Red Cross is now providing psychological support and counsel for those in the Barriere area who are still struggling with the turmoil wrought by that disaster, and delivering public education to increase emergency preparedness in the region.
It’s early in the fire season, so the Red Cross remains at the ready should more communities be threatened this year.
Not all disasters that threaten communities are natural. In Ontario, a fuel spill necessitated the evacuation of about 100 residents in Duntroon and contaminated local water. There, too, Red Cross answered the call to help those affected.
Preventing injuries all summer long
Public disasters tend to garner more attention, but Canadian Red Cross workers are also busy trying to prevent personal disasters across the country this summer. Water safety education is critical as so many people escape summer’s heat in the lakes, rivers, oceans and backyard pools. This year, public awareness campaigns urging Canadians to wear their lifejackets have taken on greater significance in the wake of several tragic drownings.
The abuse and violence prevention team, meanwhile, is using the summer months to strengthen and translate its abuse prevention curriculum, and to develop promotional tools. The goal: to ensure that every young person in Canada receives crucial information that will help protect them from the devastation of interpersonal violence.
Whether responding to large-scale public emergencies or working to prevent personal disasters, Red Cross staff and volunteers are striving to help Canadians stay safer, and to lessen the burden of loss and preserve human dignity in times of grave hardship.
That’s why the Red Cross needs your support right now – because so many Canadians are counting on us today. To donate»
