AMERICAN RED CROSS EXPANDS CAPACITY TO HANDLE DISASTERS
Organization increases stockpiles of supplies; plans to build partnerships with community groups
Dayton, Ohio, April 11, 2006 – The American Red Cross detailed plans today to expand its capacity in disasters, dramatically increasing pre-positioned supplies to assist communities across the country through the earliest days of a disaster. The Red Cross also said it plans to form partnerships with community-based organizations to speed assistance to disaster victims and bring help closer to where they live.
Most elements of the initiative will be completed or underway by July 1, according to Joseph C. Becker, the Red Cross’s Senior Vice President of Preparedness and Response. Becker described the Red Cross’s plans at the National Hurricane Conference, where leading forecasters and first-responders are meeting this week to map strategies for hurricane readiness.
The initiatives include:
Stockpiling of Supplies
Dramatically increasing the stockpiling of supplies (food, cots, blankets, comfort kits, etc.) in key risk states, which will enable the Red Cross to serve one million meals and shelter 500,000 people per day in the initial days after a disaster strikes. This represents an additional investment of about $80 million for supplies and nearly tripling of warehouse space around the country.
Pre-stocking one million debit cards for families displaced by catastrophic events.
Pre-positioning redundant communications equipment - satellite phones, cell phones and radios - in 21 cities in nine coastal states.
Strengthening the Infrastructure
Upgrading the Red Cross’s IT infrastructure to allow it to speed financial assistance to one million affected families within a ten-day period and two million over a longer term. During Katrina, that system strained after it exceeded 100,000 cases, though the Red Cross ended up serving more than 1.2 million families across the Gulf Coast through a variety of means.
Creating, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a nationwide database that will help officials track the location of shelters - as well as the number of people in them - during a major disaster.
Dedicating Red Cross staff to coordinate closely with state emergency management agencies in 13 high-risk areas.
The Red Cross will ask local chapters to form partnerships with faith-based and community groups, providing them with training, funding and technical assistance, and setting out clear protocols for effective and accountable operation.
“The Dayton Area Chapter has established partnerships with numerous community organizations,” said Fran O’Shaughnessy, Chief Emergency Services Officer for the Dayton Area Chapter. “We are coordinating response activities with several emergency response groups, including Emergency Management Agency Technical Advisory Committees, the Disaster Assistance Network, the Citizens Corps Councils in Green and Montgomery counties, and the Community Preparedness Task Force. We are expanding our shelter agreements, especially with local churches. We also have doubled the number of disaster volunteers who respond to local and national disasters.”
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