Summer brings warmer weather but also an increase in frequency of tornado warnings and watches. On average, Canada gets 62 tornadoes a year and they can have devastating effects on homes and communities. Do you know the difference between a tornado watch and warning? Are you prepared if there is a tornado in your region?

Red Cross aid worker Bonnie Kearns, a nurse from Sarnia, Ontario, has been in Nepal for the past several weeks, working in a remote community affected by the earthquake to provide basic health care services.

She describes a close call she experienced on May 12, when a second powerful earthquake struck the country, and how a young local Red Cross volunteer came to offer protection.

Canadian Red Cross appreciates the ongoing dedication of volunteers across the country dedicated to helping in times of disaster, emergency, community health and training through various programs.
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Volunteers in Ontario will receive recognition from the Canadian Red Cross for their volunteer work on May 22; here are three such volunteers and their stories of volunteerism.

Farmers from western Kenya could not hide the joy on their faces last summer as they filled a large truck with watermelon they had grown themselves. Abdi Khalim was one of the only farmers to experiment with a horticultural crop within the first planting season using the irrigation scheme established by Kenya Red Cross in the Kerio Valley.

As darkness began to settle in Nepal Tuesday night after the second earthquake hit, a newborn baby’s cry restored the spirits of a team of nine Canadian Red Cross aid workers in Khukondole.

Last week I discovered that Spam can actually taste good. Four Saskatoon Chefs battled in a Disaster Dining challenge and one even shared his recipe.

Every year, May 8 marks World Red Cross Day to commemorate the more than 150 years of humanitarian actions by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement around the world.

Large-scale disasters like the Nepal earthquake last week continue to remind us of the importance of being ready. Canada is not immune to disasters, as we saw with the Alberta floods and the Lac-Mégantic train derailment in 2013.

We mark Emergency Preparedness Week (May 3-9) here in Canada by encouraging everyone to be ready.