2003

In 2003 the Ontario government declared a provincial emergency with the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The Red Cross responded to the needs identified by municipal public health officers. This included the delivering of 5,500 health kits by over 250 Red Cross volunteers specially trained to deliver these kits.   

Red Cross volunteers packing health kits in response to SARS outbreak in Ontario in 2003.

On Dec. 26, 2003 a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit Bam, Iran, killing at least 26,271 people. The Red Cross relief efforts were led by Canadian, Lain Logan. Individuals, governments and corporations were quick to offer financial assistance to the relief efforts.

Vatche Arslanian was a member of the Canadian Red Cross and head of logistics for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Iraq. He was one of the six ICRC delegates who chose to stay in the country during the 2003 Iraq war and continue helping local relief workers. He was killed by gunfire in Baghdad while traveling with two local Red Cross workers. Five other civilian vehicles were caught in crossfire and 13 people were killed in total.

On Feb. 15, 2003 an ice jam caused the rivers that border the community of Badger, Newfoundland to flood. The Canadian Red Cross Disaster Services Team immediately responded with a relief and recovery operation. Hundreds of volunteers and staff took part in this Red Cross response, registering 962 individuals and providing meals, clothing and comfort kits.

Red Cross volunteers were on hand to assist those affected by flooding in Badger, Newfoundland in 2003.

Three separate fires in B.C.’s Interior in the summer of 2003 resulted in the evacuation of as many as 8,500 residents and prompted the declaration of a state of emergency. In response, the Canadian Red Cross assisted the provincial government in the registering of evacuees and operated a bureau that reconnected families who had lost contact due to the fires.

Forest fires in Barriere, BC in 2003.