Disaster Services
Background The American Red Cross works year
round to respond to more than 61,000 hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, fires,
hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, and other incidents each year.
Trained Red Cross paid and volunteer staff are ready to respond when a disaster
threatens or strikes. These Red Cross workers come from all walks of life, many from your
own community.
Red Cross chapters work in their communities to help the public prevent, prepare for,
and cope with disasters. The Red Cross provides free information on disasters to help
people plan for specific types of disaster, reduce their traumatic impact, prevent
injuries, save lives, and reduce the loss of property.
Mass
Care
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Emergency
Assistance
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Long
Term
Recovery
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Immediately following a disaster, the Red
Cross provides emergency shelter, food, medicine and first aid to provide for basic human
needs. Following major disasters, Red Cross workers distribute food and home cleanup items
throughout the affected areas. |
This assistance meets immediate emergency
needs. The Red Cross enables victims of disasters to resume living independently by
providing the means for them to pay for what they need most - groceries, new clothing,
temporary housing, emergency home repairs, transportation, basic household items,
medicines, and tools. |
The Red Cross also helps when all other
resources, such as insurance benefits and government assistance, are not available or are
inadequate to meet disaster related needs. All Red Cross aid is provided on an individual
basis, based on verified disaster caused needs, and, at no cost. |
Why Financial Donations ?
The Red Cross uses donated funds to provide families affected by disasters
with a wide variety of direct services including shelter, clothing, food, and crisis
counseling. Financial donations are also used to provide vouchers that will allow the
victims to purchase their immediate emergency needs from the vendors of their choice. This
service allows families to be assured that the clothes, bedding and other basic
furnishings they receive are clean, are the style they will find comfortable, are
appropriate for the season and are the right fit. It also enables families to regain some
control over their lives after having had that control stolen from them by the disaster's
effects. Another benefit to the ravaged communities is that the funds the vouchers
represent are spent in the local, affected community, helping local vendors begin their
recovery as well.
Why Not Miscellaneous In-Kind Donations ? |
One
unfortunate consequence of large numbers of donors sending their unsolicited, individual,
in-kind donations to large disasters is the accumulation of tons of unwanted, unused,
wasted materials. In past years the donations of used clothes,
furniture, appliances, and other things from thousands of well meaning families across the
country have actually caused the victims problems, rather than helped. The
Red Cross neither |
encourages nor accepts donations of
used clothes, used furniture or other individual in-kind donations from well meaning
donors. The Red Cross refers donors of miscellaneous items to other agencies set up
specifically to sort and distribute such donations. The Red Cross has more than 1,100
disaster relief workers on the scene of the present flooding providing vital shelter, food
and service to those affected. There are some agencies that are organized
specifically to assign |
workers to sort, clean, organize, and
distribute random in-kind donations of used clothes and other materials. The
Red Cross suggests that donors contact such organizations in their local areas to
determine if they are accepting donations of in-kind materials at this time.
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Additional Services
Red Cross disaster relief work also includes the following:
- Feeding emergency workers.
- Referring those affected by disaster to other available resources.
- Handling inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area.
- Providing blood and blood products to disaster victims.
- Disaster related mental health services and specialized counseling.
All Red Cross disaster assistance is provided free
of charge.
Contact The Chapter
chapter@arclcc.org
American Red Cross Lee County Chapter
2516 Colonial Blvd, Suite 201,
Fort Myers, Florida 33907
PHONE: 941-278-3401 FAX: 941-278-4829
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