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Sept. 17, 2005
KATRINA EVACUEES SEEKING ASSISTANCE SHOULD GO TO "DU" BURNS ARENA in Canton
Victim Assistance in Maryland: In an effort to provide a one-stop shopping resource for victims of Katrina who have found or are seeking shelter and/or other assistance in Maryland, the Red Cross has partnered with the City of Baltimore to set up a central location at the "Du" Burns Arena in Canton. The service center will bring together the non-profit organizations and governemental agencies that are working to help the victims of Katrina. The arena is located at 1301 Ellwood Avenue, Baltimore MD 21224.
Dispatching Additional Volunteers: Tonight, 20 additional volunteers from the Red Cross of Central Maryland will be deploying to the Gulf Coast region. Last Wednesday, 65 volunteers from across the State agreed to take an intense, one-day disaster-response training class and then deploy for a three-week stint at a moment's notice. These determined volunteers have been advised of the difficult, primitve conditions under which they will be working and, yet, have expressed only happiness at being able to help.
By the Numbers: Facts and figure about our response to this disaster
Sept. 6, 2005
KATRINA VICTIMS FIND THEIR WAY TO BALTIMORE
The Red Cross of Central Maryland has been providing food, clothing, shelter, nursing and mental health services to 150 people displaced by last week’s hurricane who have traveled to the Baltimore metropolitan area. Eighty-five Red Cross workers have been involved in helping the 45 families.
September 5, 2005
The National Red Cross Response
The Red Cross continues to meet the challenge of providing relief to tens of thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina, which plowed a wide path of destruction through the Gulf Coast just one week ago.
o Since Hurricane Katrina first slammed ashore in Florida, the American Red Cross has housed 142,000 survivors in more than 485 shelters in 18 states.
o The American Red Cross has served more than 3.3 million hot meals to survivors
of Hurricane Katrina since before first landfall.
o More than 5,600 trained Red Cross workers have left their homes in every corner of the United States to join thousands of local volunteers who responded immediately to help their neighbors in need.
o In the wake of a catastrophic disaster, the potential for illness and injury is heightened. Storm survivors are particularly vulnerable due to flood conditions, damaged sanitation and water treatment systems. Simple precautions include: Washing hands regularly with soap or using hand sanitation products; avoiding flood waters; draining standing water; protecting yourself from mosquitoes For additional information, visit www.redcross.org or ww.cdc.gov.
The American Red Cross, with 125 years of disaster response experience, is implementing innovative technology to provide faster, better service to victims.
o Hundreds of computers are being delivered to the Astrodome in Houston as well as shelters across the country, where they will be used to register shelter residents.
o Evacuees and loved ones separated by this disaster should go to www.redcross.org or call 1-877-LOVED-1S to join the “Family Linking Registry.” To date, more than 105,000 people have registered.
o The best way to help is by making an online contribution by visiting redcross-cmd.org. You can also help by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW.
>> The sheer volume of people affected, as well as the extensive geographical area impacted will require long-term massive feeding and sheltering operations for
many months to come. Remember, 90,000 square miles have been affected—about the same size as Great Britain.
>> The Disaster Relief Fund enables the Red Cross, through its network of nearly 900 local chapters, to provide immediate shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to people in need due to this disaster and thousands of other disasters across the country each year.
>>The Red Cross is unable to accept small, individual donations or collections of items such as clothing, food or cleaning supplies.
September 5, 2005
IT Establishes 24/7 Disaster Operations Support Center
The American Red Cross National Headquarters Information Technology Group has established an IT Disaster Operations Support Center in response to Hurricane Katrina. The specific role for the IT center is to provide central coordination for all the IT activities supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations, including the generous donations of help from our IT partners. Its mission is to provide technical capability as quickly and securely as possible to our relief workers.
The IT Disaster Operations Support Center is located at the 18th Street Building on Red Cross Square in Washington, D.C., in the LL20 Conference Room. You can contact the center at (202) 303-5520 or 1-888-520-1150; email [email protected] The telephone lines are staffed 24/7. Every IT request and offer of help must go through this operations center.
September 2, 2005
HUNDREDS OF LOCAL RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS DEPLOYED TO DISASTER AREA
Maryland’s Red Cross chapters from across the state are demonstrating a very high level of commitment to providing disaster relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Within a critically short period of time, we have deployed over 200 volunteers to the relief operation and more volunteers and staff members will follow after they receive disaster response training. Five of our Emergency Relief Vehicles have mobilized and are on the scene or in route.
Already we have received over 250 calls from people wanting to volunteer with the Red Cross and over 30 have agreed to deploy to the site for at least 3 weeks of hardship conditions.
As the Red Cross continues to provide food, clothing, shelter and mental health counseling to over 70,000 left homeless by Katrina, that number grows by the minute. The Red Cross and the Southern Baptists are currently able to provide over 500,000 meals a day and are increasing our capacity steadily.
In communities throughout Maryland we have seen a surge in compassion for the victims of this tragedy that echoes their response to the tsunami. People have come forward to contribute to the Red Cross Disaster Response Fund, to donate blood and to inquire about volunteer opportunities. Through your support of the Red Cross, you are participating in that spirit of compassion.
Our goal is to continue to provide these life saving services for as long as we are needed but we can’t do it without you. The American Red Cross is encouraging everyone to give whatever they can to help mitigate this tragedy and help the victims of this crisis get back on their feet. Please call 1-800-HELP-NOW and give what you can.
August 31, 2005 - LOCAL RED CROSS SENDS ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERS TO GULF COAST
The Central Maryland Red Cross is preparing dozens more volunteers to join those who have already deployed to the Gulf Coast relief operation. Their mission, part of the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster in the Red Cross’s history, will be “to do what we do best," said one. "Come together to respond with tireless compassion to take care of our neighbors.”
Thousands of residents who were able to flee Katrina’s wrath have been housed in Red Cross shelters, receiving food, water, counseling and/or medications if indicated, and whatever else they might need and will remain until it’s safe to return home.
Tuesday morning, August 30, Red Cross volunteers loaded up an emergency response vehicle and headed south to join hundreds of others from around the country. The relief vehicle is designed to withstand difficult conditions so that we may bring food and precious water to 100s who are stranded or cut off from civilization. The vehicles along with our volunteers will be on the scene for three weeks or more--as long as necessary.
If you would like to help support this relief effort and provide vital necessities to tens of thousands of victims of disaster, please donate today online https://redcross-cmd.org/Chapter/donateform.html.
Nationally, we are operating 250 shelters across seven states, providing a safe haven for nearly 42,000 evacuees – many who have been left completely homeless by Katrina.
August 29, 2005
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Announcing itself with shrieking, 145-mph winds, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans on Monday, submerging entire neighborhoods up to their roofs, swamping Mississippi's beachfront casinos and blowing out windows in hospitals, hotels and high-rises.
Fortunately, Red Cross units across the country had begun preparating for Katrina long before she made landfall. As a result, thousands of volunteers are ready to begin providing disaster relief to Katrina's victims as soon as Katrina will let them in.
In Central Maryland alone somewhere between 40 and 150 volunteers will be deployed over the next few weeks, possibly months, to assist with the mammoth task of restoring normalcy to a community devastated by the unimaginable.
Please help support your local volunteers as they dedicate their next few weeks providing disaster relief to those who need it most: https://redcross-cmd.org/Chapter/donateform.html
For New Orleans — a dangerously vulnerable city because it sits mostly below sea level in a bowl-shaped depression — it was not the apocalyptic storm forecasters had feared.
But it was plenty bad, in New Orleans and elsewhere along the coast, where scores people had to be rescued from rooftops and attics as the floodwaters rose around them.
At least five deaths were blamed on Katrina — three people killed by falling trees in Mississippi and two killed in a traffic accident in Alabama. And an untold number of other people were feared dead in flooded neighborhoods, many of which could not be reached by rescuers because of high water.
"Some of them, it was their last night on Earth," Terry Ebbert, chief of homeland security for New Orleans, said of people who ignored orders to evacuate the city of 480,000 over the weekend. "That's a hard way to learn a lesson."
"We pray that the loss of life is very limited, but we fear that is not the case," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
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Food and Shelter — $744 million