Five Years Later, Oregon Red Cross Volunteers Still Remember Katrina
  

Five years after a hurricane season wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, many Oregonians still remember responding to Hurricane Katrina as though it were yesterday. As the August 29 anniversary approaches, local Red Cross volunteers are available for media interviews about their experiences. Additionally, "Bringing Help, Bringing Hope," a report that details the Red Cross response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the ensuing years of recovery for the survivors, is available now at http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/corppubs/Katrina5Year.pdf.

Hundreds of Oregonians helped with response efforts, both in Louisiana and right here in Portland at Washington High School. Here are a few of their stories:

• Victoria Short: After seeing images of Katrina's damage, Short spontaneously volunteered to help with staffing at Washington High School and was later deployed to help in Louisiana. When she returned to Portland, she transitioned from a volunteer to a full-time staff member. As she says, "I could never bring myself to leave. I can honestly say that Katrina changed my life."
  
• Steve Meagher: Meagher also started volunteering with the Oregon Red Cross because of Hurricane Katrina. He was deployed to Louisiana and drove an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV), delivering meals and supplies to residents. Since then, Meagher has been deployed to help with Hurricane Gustav in Texas.
  
• Carol Gross: Gross' career as a disaster mental health volunteer began with Katrina, though she has served on several subsequent disasters. Gross also convinced her husband to join her as a volunteer after her positive experiences.
  
• Janet Bailey, RN: While Bailey began volunteering for the Oregon Red Cross prior to Katrina, the hurricane was her first national deployment. Bailey worked in a shelter providing health services, which she has done at the scene of many other disasters since.
  
• Talena Shields: Shields was a 19-year-old AmeriCorps volunteer with the Oregon Trail Chapter when Katrina occurred. She spent time helping at Washington High School, but was soon deployed to Louisiana to help with distribution of bulk goods including tarps and cleaning supplies. While her current availability for volunteering is limited due to college, Shields still helps when she can.

The Red Cross gave 1.4 million families—approximately 4.5 million people—emergency financial assistance in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, which was 19 times more than the previous record. Donors gave the organization a total of $2.2 billion for people affected by the storms, which helped the Red Cross provide:

• Shelter for survivors across 31 states and the District of Columbia
• Hot meals and snacks
• Financial assistance for survivors to purchase groceries, clothing, diapers and other basic needs; and money for people to return home, make home repairs and get back to work
• Physical and mental health services to help them cope with stress and ease the trauma
• Tools to help survivors chart a path to recovery
• Disaster preparedness training so people know the steps to take to protect themselves and their families

"Never before had the Red Cross served so many people after a disaster, and never before had so many people come forward to help," said Russ Paulsen, executive director of the Hurricane Recovery Program at the Red Cross. "But we learned that there are some disasters that are so big that no agency—government or nonprofit—can do it all. We learned that everyone needs to play a part."

One critical lesson was that the Red Cross needed to increase its capacity to respond and build partnerships with other organizations that can help in large events. As a result, the Red Cross established a nationwide warehouse system and pre-positioned more than two Katrinas' worth of disaster relief supplies in warehouses—enough to support 350,000 shelter residents. It also enhanced local, state and national-level planning efforts to plan for how it would respond to large-scale disasters and created new partnerships with national, state and local groups to help ensure that all segments of the community are served after a disaster.

In the past five years, the Red Cross expanded the number of trained disaster volunteers from 25,000 to nearly 95,000, including nearly 50,000 available to travel to disasters around the country. The organization also created tools for the public to use during a disaster, including a National Shelter System accessible online, and a "Safe and Well" website to reconnect families during disasters, including through social media.

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The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission.