By Gordon Williams The task of most Red Cross volunteers in a disaster zone is to provide victims with food, water and shelter. The task of volunteer Ginger Van Ry in a disaster zone is to provide skilled emotional support to victims whose response to disaster can range from stoic acceptance to deep, crippling depression. … Continue reading Helping to Heal the Emotional Scars of Hurricane Harvey
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
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
Best Friends–Now Red Cross Teammates
By Sara Shager Photos by Betsy Robertson American Red Cross volunteers Linda Strong and Betty Jackson have been associated with the Greater Inland Northwest Chapter in Wenatchee for three years this fall. “It’s so heartwarming to help the people who have just lived through a disaster,” says Betty. “The volunteer work we do with the … Continue reading Best Friends–Now Red Cross Teammates
Sounding the Alarm for her Neighbors
By: Dale Steinke Photos by: Betsy Robertson If someone offered to put something in your house that might save your family’s life at some point over the next 10 years… and do it for free, would you take advantage of it? When Gretchen Atkinson, chairman of Shoreline’s Meridian Park Neighborhood Association, learned about how people … Continue reading Sounding the Alarm for her Neighbors
American Red Cross NW Region 