By Gordon Williams The Great Washington ShakeOut--the moment each year when we’re supposed to practice our earthquake survival skills--comes this year at 10:19 a.m. on Thursday, October 19. Keeping your drop, cover and hold-on skills up to speed is a pretty compelling notion in a region where earthquakes are all too common. As the state … Continue reading Help for Honing your Earthquake Survival Skills
Helping After Two Hurricanes in the Virgin Islands
By Gordon Williams Photos by Amelia Iraheta Amelia Iraheta of Seattle finds conditions harsh on St. Thomas, where she is part of the American Red Cross relief operation in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wrecked homes and flooded streets are everywhere; there still are power lines down and there is a curfew to keep cars off … Continue reading Helping After Two Hurricanes in the Virgin Islands
How the Red Cross tends to Spiritual and Physical Needs
By Gordon Williams Pictures by Tim Serban Most disaster victims need more than just a meal and a safe place to sleep, says Portland, OR based Red Cross service area leader Tim Serban. They also need emotional and spiritual support to help them get through an ordeal that threatens to tear their lives apart. … Continue reading How the Red Cross tends to Spiritual and Physical Needs
Feeding Storm Victims in a Small Texas Town
By Gordon Williams Pictures by Norman Bottenberg Some Red Cross volunteers, now aiding hurricane victims in Texas or Florida, can date their first deployment to Superstorm Sandy in 2012. For others the first deployment was to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. For Norm Bottenberg, of Sammamish WA, the first deployment was the eruption of Mount St. … Continue reading Feeding Storm Victims in a Small Texas Town
Coping With Disasters in Our Own Backyard
By Gordon Williams It wasn’t a disaster on the scale of hurricanes Harvey or Irma, but for residents of the Carriage House apartments in SeaTac, WA, the fire that tore through the building on a recent Friday night was a disaster just the same. As with Harvey and Irma, it brought out the Red Cross … Continue reading Coping With Disasters in Our Own Backyard
A 3,000-Mile Journey to Help the Victims of Irma
By Gordon Williams It was 9:30 on a Monday night--barely 48 hours after Hurricane Irma ravaged Florida--when the phone rang in the Everson, WA home of Dale and Audrey Snapper. Everson is only a few miles from Bellingham--headquarters of the Northwest Washington chapter of the American Red Cross. Would the Snappers be willing to drive … Continue reading A 3,000-Mile Journey to Help the Victims of Irma
A Long Trek from the Northwest to Help Hurricane Victims
By Gordon Williams Published on September 11, 2017 Key West, Florida is 2,722 miles from Seattle--about as far apart as two cities in the continental United States can be. Yet that distance proved to be no obstacle when volunteers from the Northwest Region joined the army of Red Cross workers heading south to help the … Continue reading A Long Trek from the Northwest to Help Hurricane Victims
These Maps Sharpen our Hurricane Response
By Gordon Williams The value of a map lays in its ability to deliver heaps of information to the user with just a glance: Distance, terrain, points of interest, population density and what the surrounding countryside is like. The American Red Cross is making use of very advanced types of maps, called WebMAPs, in its response … Continue reading These Maps Sharpen our Hurricane Response
How the Red Cross Manages America’s Blood Supply
by Gordon Williams Pictures by Gordon Williams The Red Cross relies on many skills in carrying out its mission: disaster responders and first aid teachers, mass care workers and water safety instructors. But did you know that in fulfilling one critical element of its mission, the Red Cross relies on trained medical technicians known as … Continue reading How the Red Cross Manages America’s Blood Supply
When Every Second Counts
by Gordon Williams Visit just one fire scene, work your way through one burned-out dwelling, and you’ll understand why every second counts when a home catches fire. Until you see it first-hand, you can't imagine the devastation a fire can cause. A fire doubles in size every 30 seconds. As it spreads, it consumes … Continue reading When Every Second Counts
American Red Cross NW Region 