Showing posts with label Deployments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deployments. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Hurricane Irene Expected to Unleash Her Fury along the Eastern Seaboard

With Hurricane Irene’s eye glaring at some of America’s most populated urban areas along the eastern seaboard, the American Red Cross is mobilizing people and resources in force. Today, two Red Cross teams and two Emergency Response Vehicles left from North Texas to support local chapters in various states who have been working around the clock sheltering evacuees and prepping for landfall.

Any hurricane is serious business, but Irene has the potential to wreak havoc. With some 65 million people in her path, the American Red Cross is asking people who are not in her path, or who haven’t been affected by other recent storms, to support the relief effort by making a financial contribution to the American Red Cross. Already, the organization has expended tremendous resources just to get into position, but the hardest work still lies ahead.

Financial contributions help the Red Cross purchase needed items in bulk, such as pallets of bottled water, thousands of meals and snacks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shovels, rakes, and other relief supplies. Those funds also help to put gas in response vehicles and make it possible for a volunteer to make it from Texas to New York to help out after the storm.

To make a donation to the American Red Cross, click on www.redcrossdallas.org, text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 or call 1-800-RED-CROSS. No gift is too small or too large.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

From the Field: Jolean Rook, Dallas Volunteer

NORTH DAKOTA - My name is Jolean Rook and I am serving with the American Red Cross in Fargo, North Dakota!

Being from Dallas, and on my first national deployment in Health Services, I have been so impressed with the magnitude of Red Cross aid going on here.

It's day three of ten for me and I am LOVING it. Right now the river seems to have crested at around 43 feet and right now it has gone down to 39.1; flooding is 18 feet so you can imagine the horrible conditions. To make matters worse, today, my partner and I are waiting out a blizzard!!

Health Services is doing so much. Yesterday we opened a new shelter to house and aid "special needs" and elderly individuals. They were so gracious and impressed. Tonight I will be going to another shelter closer to the river. We are hoping the dikes hold but if anything breaches that shelter will be able to take in 1,000 more people.

Locals have been SHOCKED that I would come all the way from Dallas just to help them, and several have asked me to just sit and talk to them because the Texas accent "blows them away". LOL. A gentlemen even stopped me in Wal-Mart to shake my hand and thank me...the Red Cross jacket was his first clue I was here to help, the "foreign" accent was his second!!

Talk to y'all again soon!!
-Jolean