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Ohio Volunteer Rises to the Occasion
As images of flooded streets and homes filled TV screens, Phil Haggard was too busy helping the victims to watch.
By Allen Crabtree, Disaster Public Affairs Volunteer, Southern Maine Chapter
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 — Phil Haggard sat riveted to his chair, watching images from Louisiana and Mississippi flash across his television screen. Hurricane Katrina had just devastated much of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the longer Phil watched, the more he wished he could do something to help.
Phil Haggard interviews Paul Lopez at his parents’ home in Ottawa, Ohio, about the extent of flood damage to the house.
(Photo credit: Allen Crabtree/American Red Cross)
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One of his daughters had been deployed to the Gulf Coast with the 82nd Airborne to help with immediate cleanup. “If my daughter can do it,” he reasoned, “I can, too.”
Then, like so many others in America, Phil Haggard began volunteering with the American Red Cross. He took a number of basic training courses, from shelter operations to disaster assessment, through his local chapter (Hancock County, Ohio). In October 2005 he received his first disaster relief assignment, traveling to Florida to help with the Red Cross response to Hurricane Wilma.
“I heard that the Red Cross sends you to exotic places,” he says, “but not necessarily at exotic times.”
His deployment to Florida gave him an opportunity to see first-hand what the Red Cross is all about and to help people whose lives had been turned upside down. Since then he has participated in a number of relief operations, most recently in his home town of Findlay, Ohio, which was struck by torrential rain and flooding in late August.
Working 26 Straight Hours
When heavy rains swelled the nearby Blanchard River on August 21, Phil was assigned to be the Red Cross liaison to the local Emergency Operations Center in Findlay. That night, the Red Cross opened a shelter at St. Andrews College in Findlay for people being evacuated from their homes, and Phil was reassigned to help at the shelter.
During the evening, water began rising faster and higher than anyone had predicted, and St Andrews College began to flood. Phil was called to help move the 80 people who had sought refuge at the college to an alternate shelter location at the “Cube,” a skating arena in Findlay. Before the night was over, 240 people were sheltered at the Cube.
All told, Phil worked 26 straight hours, performing a variety of government liaison, shelter operations, and logistics functions. When shelter supplies ran low, he headed to the local Wal-Mart for food, paper products, and other items that were needed for the growing number of evacuees at the Cube. When the septic system at the arena backed up, he helped the building maintenance staff unclog the system.
After a much-needed day off to recuperate, Phil was back on the job, doing whatever was needed to assist the relief operation. During the day, he conducted damage assessments of flooded areas in Findlay and nearby towns. As damage assessment progressed and client services work began, he joined an outreach team to contact homeowners for family and individual assistance.
Phil continues to be active with his local chapter and is taking additional courses to learn more about the Red Cross. If his experience with the northern Ohio floods of 2007 is any example, he has also learned a cardinal Red Cross rule: Be flexible.
“Every day I’ve been asked to do things that stretch me, that I’ve never done before,” he says. “But I’m helping people, and that’s what really matters.”
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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