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

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