Early this morning, September 6th, 2008, the Red Cross could be seen canvasing most of coastal Virgina. While much of the attention of the Red Cross prior to the storm was focused on setting up evacuation shelters, stock piling cots, blankets and food, and putting volunteers on stand-by; that focus has shifted to assessing the damage from the hurricane and mobilizing those same volunteers to start providing services to the folks affected. The assessment phase is important because it gives the Red Cross vital information, thus allowing leadership to make informed decisions on where shelters should be opened, how many folks the Red Cross should expect at those shelters and which neighborhoods the Red Cross needs to visit (to distribute food and clean-up kits).
This is the first step in the Red Cross response to any disaster. The next few steps will get volunteers in the field opening longer term shelters, providing mobile feeding and within the next day or so, starting the casework process with individual victims.
Jamie Devlin
