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International Societies Visit the Big Easy
Ingrid Penick Bailey, Special to Redcross.org
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 — NEW ORLEANS – By calling on its partner societies for a helping hand, the American Red Cross reached another historic milestone during what has been an extremely turbulent hurricane season.
After suffering the terrible blow of Hurricane Katrina, more than 50 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from around the world helped support the relief operations with personnel, funds or both to the Hurricane Katrina response. This assistance includes more than 30 international disaster response experts deployed to the affected areas to assist with everything from comforting clients and providing logistics to translation services and working with the media to disseminate updated information.
An international delegation of Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies learns the operation of the American Red Cross and Southern Baptist Convention kitchen site in Kenner, La., Nov. 4, 2005.
(Photo Credit: Cindy Hadley/American Red Cross)
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Accompanied by Julie Reynes, Executive Director for the American Red Cross International Services unit, five representatives from partner National Societies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation) witnessed the devastation firsthand. Steven Morris, Canadian Red Cross National Director of Public Affairs; Alice Armanni Sequi, Advisor for Federation; Alberto de Castro Torres, Spanish Red Cross Deputy Director International Cooperation Department; Lars-Otto Laukvik, Norwegian Red Cross Vice Chairman of the National Council of the Search and Rescue Corps; and Jane McGowan, Vice President of the Canadian Red Cross Society Board of Governors all came to view and experience the aftermath of the storm and its effects on the New Orleans region.
Leading this group of international visitors on a tour of the area was Al Hamilton, a dedicated employee from the Southeast Louisiana Chapter whose own family survived the storm. The tour started at the kitchen site in Kenner, La., jointly operated by the Red Cross and the Arkansas Southern Baptist Convention. Each day a fleet of Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) leaves this site, stocked and ready to provide people in the community with hot meals, snacks and water.
Julie Reynes, Executive Director for the American Red Cross International Services unit, lends a hand at New Orleans bulk distribution site, Nov. 4, 2005.
(Photo Credit: Cindy Hadley/American Red Cross)
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“Before coming to the affected area, I was aware of the concept of the Southern Baptist kitchen, but to actually see it functioning is amazing,” said Morris. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the kitchen site in Kenner will have prepared one million hot meals.
After leaving Kenner, the tour continued downtown to the Stalling Center comfort station where the “Look and Leave” program was implemented recently. This program was established in coordination with several long-standing partners to allow residents to ride a shuttle bus down near the Industrial Canal, the area of the Ninth Ward where the water breached the levee, to view their community and their homes. The miles and miles of debris, hardened sludge and overturned houses was clear evidence that Katrina was a force with which to be reckoned. Each shuttle bus has a mental health professional aboard to provide support to those having a hard time coping with what has been lost.
“The Ninth Ward had a visible impact on the international delegation as they viewed destroyed homes and neighborhoods,” said Reynes. “The widespread path of destruction left by the hurricane and the breach in the levee near the Industrial Canal was shocking, yet made a clear statement on how badly the American Red Cross needed the help of its partner societies.”
That help came in the form of approximately 50 skilled personnel from the Canadian Red Cross and almost a dozen trained personnel from the Spanish Red Cross and Norwegian Red Cross, among others.
Lars-Otto Laukvik, Norwegian Red Cross Vice Chairman of the National Council of the Search and Rescue Corps, helps to pack hot lunches on an American Red Cross emergency response vehicle in New Orleans, Nov. 4, 2005.
(Photo Credit: Cindy Hadley/American Red Cross) |
Moving on to the bulk distribution site, everyone in the group had the opportunity to work as the line of cars and people pulled up to receive supplies. De Castro Torres worked up a Louisiana sweat loading the cars in the distribution line with much-needed bottled water. Sequi provided ready to eat meals to residents who needed food for later. Morris and McGowan helped distribute clean-up kits to the residents working to make their homes livable again. At the end of these efforts, everyone received a hot meal from Laukvik, who packed and served a lunch of red beans and rice from the window of the ERV onsite.
The small group then traveled outside the city to spend time at the Oak Harbor resident shelter, where chatting with personnel and residents painted a clear picture of what life has been like for the past two months. During the tour of the shelter, Amanda Downs, a Red Cross volunteer from the Central Maryland Chapter, logged onto one of the shelter computers and learned that she passed the bar exam, after six months of waiting for the results to be posted. It was an exciting moment for the delegation to witness after seeing so much sadness and destruction within the city.
The tour ended at the operation’s headquarters in Covington, La., where the group learned about the “behind the scenes” needs of the relief operations.
At each stop during the tour, employees and volunteers made sure to let the international visitors know how thankful the American Red Cross has been for the help of its partner societies.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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