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Red Cross Volunteer In the Path of the Storm
Kate Fowlie, Special to RedCross.org
Monday, September 20, 2004 — ATMORE, ALABAMA – American Red Cross volunteer Sandy Zuiderhoek went home to rest after five weeks of helping with hurricane relief efforts in Florida only to find her own town would soon be under attack by Hurricane Ivan.
American Red Cross volunteer Sandy Zuiderhoek with the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter surveys a home Friday that was nearly demolished by Hurricane Ivan in Atmore, Alabama. (Photo by Ed Porter)
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The volunteer with the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter flew home the Tuesday before Ivan made landfall, and immediately had to help open an evacuation shelter in Atmore, Alabama. Days later, the eye of Hurricane Ivan made its way through the town on September 16, after pummeling the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama.
“I’d been through hurricanes Charley and Frances and I come home to find myself in the middle of another disaster,” she said, shaking her head as she stood on her street, now littered with downed trees and power lines.
Her home suffered only minor damage, but the homes of two friends nearby were seriously damaged by fallen pine trees. The Category 3 storm peeled roofs off houses and uprooted trees and power lines throughout Atmore and the rest of Escambia County.
Most of the county’s 38,000 residents are still without power, which isn’t expected to be restored for weeks because of the extensive damage. The 25-foot-plus white steeple at Atmore’s First Baptist Church was torn off and lay on its side in the parking lot. The few gas stations that were open had lines 100-cars deep. Some neighborhood roads were still blocked by trees.
The county was in desperate need of water. Zuiderhoek immediately went to work and got Anheiser-Busch to donate cans of water, which were scheduled to be delivered at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in Brewton.
The Red Cross already had sent in mobile feeding units Friday and planned to send more Saturday (Sept. 18). Zuiderhoek helped fellow chapter members and volunteers Richard Wright and Willard Myers to do a preliminary damage assessment of Escambia County on Friday. As damage is assessed, recovery shelters and service centers will be opened in the county.
Zuiderhoek serves as her chapter’s interim disaster chair but also works in logistics, securing supplies from donors.
Though she has helped others cope with disasters, this was the first time she was personally affected by one since she joined the Red Cross five years ago.
“It feels wonderful to be able to come home and help. The Red Cross is a wonderful organization. I’m very proud to be part of it,” Zuiderhoek said.
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