By Shoba Brown

American Red Cross volunteer David Meade did not hesitate when he got that call to deploy the morning after the EF-5 tornado had ravaged Joplin, Missouri. 

He drove down to Joplin, checked in with Red Cross headquarters and as he succinctly puts it, “started to work, doing what needed to be done.”

With a city in shambles after the May 22, 2011 twister and people stunned and trying to get their bearings, David knew there was much to be done and no time to waste. He was ready to do any and every job asked of him.

Armed with a long career in law enforcement, and some two decades of Red Cross experience beginning with the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, David Meade was well equipped to handle the rigorous demands of the immediate recovery efforts.

“Thirty-five years in law enforcement helped,” he said. “I tried to do the best with what I had.  Any time you have the very first part of a disaster, the first thing you do is to secure the clients in safe housing and tend to their needs.” 

David and his team of volunteers did it all from unloading trucks, serving food, managing traffic in shelter parking lots to working in the shelters.

“Most of the people that I worked with were seasoned responders who were well aware of what disasters are. There is nothing you can do to prevent that disaster except pick up the pieces.”

Although deeply saddened by the decimation and loss of life, David’s training allowed him to take the long, 14-hour days in stride, hold his emotions at bay and save his strength for those who needed it.

When asked about the memories of his time working in Joplin, David recalled, “It was very sad and disheartening to see the disaster area, specially the hospital.” 

He said he tries not to bring “work” home and there are memories he would prefer not to dredge up but, “We don’t forget some of those disaster. We do what we have to do.”

“When you get to that disaster, you’re so busy you don’t have time to stop and think about things. You do the job that needs to be done at that particular moment, then you can sit back and reflect on what transpired. And I knew what transpired. I knew that people were killed and injured, and the job at hand the entire time I was down there was getting aid and comfort to the clients, and making sure that they were taken care of first.”

David is a humanitarian who knows disasters and continues to give of himself in the service of those in need.

By Carl Manning

The devastation was everywhere and there was no rhyme or reason. One side of a street obliterated and the other side untouched. People stood in the morning sun to survey what once had been their neighborhood, their home, their way of life.

As a journalist, I had seen my share of disasters brought about by nature and humankind. But the massive tornado of May 22, 2011 that laid waste to sections of Joplin, Missouri was different.

 In past disasters, my job was to observe what was there and write about it. Involvement was something to avoid. But this was different.

As a new Red Cross volunteer, I quickly realized that involvement not only was expected, it was the core of what we do to help survivors to recover and move on.

As part of the disaster assessment team, I was among the first to arrive while rescuers still were searching the debris that once were homes and removing victims from the trees.

But in this crossroads of shock and response were a few oasis of normalcy. The drive-up burger joint still in operation with a portable generator. A merchant on a street corner where his store once stood handing out what he had salvaged.

Later in the day, my DA partner and I came upon a Red Cross vehicle handing out food and decided it was a good time for a break. As we ate, another volunteer came up, grabbed a sandwich and we started talking.

Turned out he was a disaster mental health volunteer walking through the neighborhoods, talking to those he saw. We parted, going our separate ways with a smile and wave.

At our next stop a few minutes later, I saw a woman sitting in the front yard of what once was her home. As I approached her, I greeted her and in an almost offhand way asked how she was doing.

After a few seconds of silence, she responded that this had been her home all her life and she had lost her mother and her dog. Then she said with a tone of finality that she saw no reason to live.

At that point, my partner walked up and I told him briefly what she said. He told me to stay with her while he headed back to find the mental health counselor. The woman and I chatted, first about nothing important and then she started talking about her family.

Within minutes, the counselor arrived. I introduced him as a friend who would like to talk to her and with that we left with the two of them talking.

A day or two later, I ran into the counselor at Red Cross headquarters and asked about the woman. Without going into detail he simply said, “You probably saved her life.”

And from that I learned why we do what we do. You never know when the smallest act of kindness might make all the difference.

By Katie Karraker

On the evening of May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado struck the town of Joplin, MO, leaving homes and businesses in shambles. The storm was recorded as one of the deadliest tornadoes in modern U.S. history, tragically taking around 160 lives and leaving over one thousand injured.

American Red Cross volunteers quickly deployed to Joplin to offer support to the town and its people during their moment of need. Red Cross volunteers set out on a mission to help the community recover from the destruction of the tornado by providing them with essential resources such as meals, shelter, and emotional support while assisting first responders in their effort to rescue survivors.

One volunteer who worked with the Red Cross to bring the Joplin community back to their feet was David Sewell. Sewell’s role as a volunteer was to assist in providing technology resources to disaster responders; critical tools in executing a disaster response and answering the call for help.

“After about five different broken cell phone conversations, Chris Harmon (Emergency Services Director for the local chapter) gave me my reporting instructions, and the next morning, with the support of the American Red Cross National Disaster Services Technology Team, I was on my way to Joplin less than 12 hours after the multi-vortex tornado devastated much of Joplin.”

Sewell recalls his initial sight of the damage left by the tornado and the challenges of navigating in Joplin shortly after the storm in the wake of such destruction. “When I got to the outskirts of Joplin, if I had not had a GPS to use, I honestly would not have been able to navigate in Joplin,” he said. “Street signs and landmarks were nonexistent. In the disaster footprint area, the devastation was so bad that it looked as if the landscape had been scrubbed clean. It almost looked as if a huge blast had occurred, and the shockwave had wiped everything out.”

Sewell and his Disaster Services technology team not only provided technology to the community in response to the storm, but also educated first responders on how to use the different forms of technology to improve the efficiency of their rescue mission.

“We provided satellite internet, cell phones, printers, fax machines, satellite phones, and the expertise to deploy all these vital tools. My team helped the disaster responders learn how to use all of this technology in a way that enabled them to help out as quickly as possible,” Sewell said. Sewell was glad to have been able to facilitate the team of technology experts that provided responders with useful resources that helped them carry out their mission.

Ten years after the tornado, Sewell looks back on his experience, feeling proud to have served the community and to have played a role in helping the people of Joplin overcome the heartbreak of a disaster. He called it an “incredible privilege” to have been a part of the Red Cross team that opened their hearts to the residents of Joplin in their darkest day.

“I see those first hours of devastation and I see all of the incredible recovery that has taken place over the last ten years and I am proud of the resilience of Joplin and the part we played in it,” he notes. “Responding to future disasters won't be any easier but the payback is immeasurable. Disaster responders get far more back than they ever invest in helping others - that is why it is important to share our experiences with others to create a strong and enduring force for good.”

By David Strom

Sometimes the simplest ideas are also the most powerful. One of the great innovations that came out of the response to the Joplin, MO, tornado of 2011 was the first Multiple Agency Response Center (MARC). Since then, MARCs have become the gold standard for partner cooperative efforts.

Debi Meeds, (longtime American Red Cross volunteer profiled here), deserves much of the credit.  While working a disaster back in 2008, she had noticed confusion. “People didn’t know where local resources were located, and our clients were spending a lot of time running around town to obtain assistance. The average client had to go to ten different places to obtain lost documents such as their driver’s license, family services, and things like food and clothing from various charities—and remember, folks didn’t have GPS phones back then.”

So instead of bringing people to the services, Meeds switched things and brought services to the people. Ultimately, the Joplin MARC had 48 different agencies and organizations at one location.

Widespread publicity helped establish the MARC idea. “We had lots of national press in Joplin, and it also helped that this was the first time FEMA co-located with one of our operations sites. They literally parked their bus filled with client services staff outside our MARC building. That helped demonstrate the model to national Red Cross staffers, too.”

Something unexpected was how the MARC helped children. “Kids had been traumatized by the tornado.  Day care centers were destroyed, so parents seeking help brought their children with them. In the MARC we had a children’s area set aside staffed by a volunteer organization that had certified childcare trauma specialists. Children would come to the MARC clinging to their parents and hollow-eyed, unable to articulate the terror they felt. But eventually we would hear laughter and happy shouts from the children playing. It was one of the most gratifying things in the MARC, knowing we were helping these little ones forget their trauma for a while and get on the road to recovery.”

            The MARC also created a new neighborhood ethos for clients displaced by the tornado. “Our MARC helped reconnect neighbors, and we saw many reunions with people who didn’t know what happened to their former neighbors. Seeing the expressions on these people when they found each other was wonderful.”

Debi couldn’t have known in 2011 just how successful the MARC concept would become, but she knew even then that she was on to something important. “I told my staff at the time it would become a nationwide model for how we deliver services, and many of them doubted me,” she recalls. “But It has given me a lot of joy to see the MARC concept take off.”

Debi has since retired from her work in non-profit, but still can be found making an impact through the American Red Cross. Only this time, she gives her time and talent as a volunteer.

By Laura Warfel

Tornadoes rearrange people’s lives. On May 22, 2011, a EF-5-rated, multiple-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, resulting in 161 fatalities and damage estimated at $3 billion.

Jenny Solomon was living an hour from Joplin in Republic, Missouri, that night. “I was at my apartment, watching the storm on my computer,” she recalls. “My friend in Joplin was in her basement with no computer. We were talking on the phone when the tornado passed over her house.”

The large, dark, billowing clouds soon made their way to Republic, but there were no tornadoes in her area that day. “And then after the devastation, the rainbows came,” Jenny says. “I found debris from Joplin in our yard.”

Jenny immediately began helping the tornado survivors at her job working for a national cell phone carrier. People began coming to her store for replacement phones because no phones were available in Joplin.

“They came in with broken arms and bandages,” she says. “And they kept telling us their survival stories. This was my first experience with a disaster.”

Hearing these stories moved Jenny to action. She was familiar with the American Red Cross because of the help its volunteers had given her during a fire in her apartment complex. When she saw how local and national agencies, churches and the Red Cross were working together, she began investigating how she could get involved helping the people in Joplin.

She remembers vividly a single mom and her family from Joplin. The roof of their home was terribly damaged by the tornado. The Red Cross helped them get the roof replaced. In the meantime, the mom had fallen behind on her mortgage payments, and the house was going into foreclosure.

“I presented her case, and why we needed to help her,” Jenny says. “We worked together with other agencies until we were able to make it possible for her to stay in her home.”

One year after the Joplin relief operation, Jenny was hired by the Red Cross as a Disaster Case Manager. “I’ve being doing this job since 2012,” she says. “I’m inspired every day by the compassion and how everyone works together to help find solutions for clients’ needs.”

Because of the Joplin tornado, Jenny discovered a new career path. “I will stay with the Red Cross in Disaster Cycle Services as long as I can,” she says. “Being a Red Crosser has shown me that I can have a good career and help people, too.”

“Helping survivors through difficult times is our job, but their lives are changed by what we do,” she adds. “If you have a heart for giving back to people at turning points in their lives, volunteer with the Red Cross.”

By Mark Maginn

One scene in every weather catastrophe always seems to symbolize nature’s astonishingly destructive power. For Dorinda Nicholson, an American Red Cross volunteer, that scene was a grotesquely mangled car hanging from a tree.

When she arrived in Joplin, Missouri, and drove past that tree ten years ago, she wondered, how much force would it take to wipe out entire blocks? Driving further, she stared in disbelief at houses and buildings that were shifted entirely off their foundations and blown into bits.

Pulling herself from the initial shock, Dorinda wondered, who could survive this, and how many must have died? And then came the big question: And what was she supposed to do—what could she do?

A veteran at responding to disasters as a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health volunteer, Dorinda knew immediately that she wouldn’t just be helping survivors cope with starting over. She would also be helping many of them deal with the demon of loss that had carried off loved ones and friends.

Intuitively, she realized that helping survivors coming to grips with impersonal 300 mph winds snuffing out lives would be an enormous challenge. But from experience, she also knew that just being available to traumatized survivors would be more than half the battle.

Rolling up her sleeves and getting to work, she took on whatever roles were needed immediately. Sometimes, it was just listening to the anguish of a survivor who lost not only their home, but also a family member. Just listening might seem like small relief, but the genuine presence of an empathic and caring volunteer can start the slow process of healing.

Pitching in wherever needed, Dorinda handed out trash bags and mops to those cleaning up the mess. She helped set up shelters, answered questions, and provided access to phones, and blankets and backpacks. Exemplifying the best of One Red Cross, she pitched in wherever needed, even if it wasn’t part of her line of service.

Sometimes, we overlook the silent personal challenges Red Cross volunteers carry, even as they serve others affected by disaster. As Dorinda held the hands of clients who lost love ones, her thoughts drifted back home to her husband struggling with challenging health issues. But like all Red Cross volunteers who serve while facing challenges of their own, she resolutely continued her mission, dedicated to alleviating the suffering of others.

            The memory of Joplin will never leave Dorinda. Once again, she saw that, even though tornadoes fling cars into trees and tear buildings from their foundation, their destructive force can never defeat the simple and overwhelming power of a gentle touch and the listening ear of someone committed to help.

By Mark Maginn

Ten years ago, a ferocious EF-5 tornado with maximum winds between 216 and 318 mph blasted throughout densely populated Joplin, Missouri. Those winds that killed 162 people were the beginning of a profound personal journey for Red Cross Liaison JoAnn Woody.

Arriving in Joplin the night after the storm, JoAnn first searched for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) where she would spend most of her time in that devastated city. Entering town, she and a friend from the Salvation Army ran into a traffic jam that crawled along. The first chilling scene she encountered was National Guardsmen at each intersection directing drivers because all traffic lights were out. Guardsmen were also preventing cars from entering the most scarred neighborhoods of Joplin.

As they followed the line of traffic, JoAnn was staggered by the scenes of devastation in the wake of the feral winds that had savaged Joplin. One side of the street would be largely intact, but the other side could be an entirely different world, ravaged and razed to the ground.

Rattled by the sight of houses made of stone that failed to withstand the ravenous winds, JoAnn imagined terrorized families huddling together while the roaring train of ferocity convulsed their world. Did any of them survive? Had they been crushed or swept away? How did they manage the panic, the nearness of death, the dread? In all her deployments, JoAnn had never witnessed first-hand the savagery of mother nature’s violence, and it left her feeling frightened and exhausted.

At the EOC, her job was to liaise with government agencies and other private agencies. While serving at that post she encountered the story that affected her most while deployed to Joplin.

JoAnn learned that a woman from the State Department in Washington, D.C., wanted to speak with her. There were undoubtedly foreign citizens staying in Joplin, so it would be routine for her to speak with an agent.

The agent wanted a favor from JoAnn and the Red Cross. A family had been able to reconnect, except for a son they couldn’t locate. The agent was asking JoAnn to help find the young man. Such an effort wasn’t part of her job, but out of simple kindness she immediately agreed to help.

She began making phone calls to dig up some helpful information, all the time realizing that finding him might bring tragic news. Soon she was able to provide the agent a list of hospitals the family had not yet contacted.

Later, the agent reported back that the young man’s body had been found at one of the hospitals on the list. Joann knew nothing about the family, but she was filled with gratitude that her efforts had allowed them to say goodbye to their son. A small favor for an agent she didn’t know had led to a healing response for a family she would never meet.

A core mission of the American Red Cross mission is to alleviate human suffering. During the Joplin tornado disaster response operation, JoAnn Woody fulfilled that mission, even when that kindness wasn’t part of her official duties.

By Carl Manning

When the American Red Cross and Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri signed an agreement on April 28, 2011 to provide space for shelters in a disaster, it was seen as something that might be needed someday.

That someday came the evening of May 22 when an EF5 tornado tore through the city leaving a path of destruction six miles long and a mile wide.

Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and scores of people were killed and injured. In the aftermath, survivors wandered in the streets, stepping over and around rubble as they absorbed the devastation they were witnessing.

Because of the agreement, the Red Cross and the University were able to have a shelter up and running within a short time after the storm struck to provide a place of safety and comfort to survivors.  

Chris Harmon, then director of emergency services at the Southern Missouri Chapter in Springfield, said the agreement he signed with Missouri Southern President Bruce Speck made all the difference in the Red Cross response.

“All the expectations were lined out ahead of time. Having agreements in place like this help us to take care of client even quicker because everyone knows their roles,” said Chris, now the Missouri-Arkansas regional disaster officer.

As rescue work got underway in the affected areas, Red Cross volunteers quickly arrived with trailers filled with shelter supplies at the University to begin their work.

“The faculty and staff knew about the agreement and arrived at the scene early to assist. Because of the agreement, the Red Cross staff, Joplin Health Department staff and Joplin Humane Society staff arrived immediately to establish necessary support services for those impacted by the tornado,” recalled Darren Fullerton, then Missouri Southern vice president of student affairs.

The University also opened its campus to other organizations to give them a place to work and help out with relief efforts.

The Red Cross had cots and blankets to provide a comfortable place to rest, sleep and clean up. Hot meals and snacks were served and medical assistance was available, along with counselors to help people process what they had been through.

The sheltering operation continued at the University until June 1 with Red Crossers working with those staying there to ensure they would have a place to stay once the shelter closed.

During that time, over 3,400 overnight shelter stays were recorded and the Red Cross served more than 85,000 meals to those sheltering and out in the field. Additionally nearly 200,000 relief items such as gloves, tarps, shovels and rakes were handed out and the Red Cross opened more than 1,500 cases for assistance.  

There were lessons learned about sheltering after the Joplin tornado. For instance, up to then, only service animals were allowed in shelters which meant the family pets had no place to stay.

Because so many people had lost their homes, those impacted had no place for their pets to stay. The University agreed to have a separate shelter set up for pets away from where people were staying.

In the years that followed, the Red Cross has worked with partner agencies like humane societies to set up separate pet shelters near the shelter for people.

By Kim Mailes

Observing the skies from her backyard on an early Sunday evening in May of 2011, Nigel Holderby noticed ominous clouds and an unusual double rainbow in the distance. She didn’t know it at the time, but a tornado was devastating Joplin, Missouri, an hour’s drive from her Springfield home.

Neither did she know this event would change her life forever.

After becoming an American Red Cross volunteer in 2007, Nigel was soon deeply engaged, taking shifts at the front desk at the local office, enrolling in disaster operations training courses, and supervising social media accounts. That’s how she first heard about the devastation in Joplin.

While still observing those threatening skies that evening, she received a call from her supervisor. “We are opening a shelter in Joplin, can you tweet the address?” She immediately logged into the Red Cross twitter account and shared the shelter location, and continued tweeting updates throughout the evening.

 But even as she kicked communications efforts into high gear, she remained unaware of the full extent of the disaster. A native Midwesterner accustomed to tornadoes, she thought it was probably just another spring storm. But she soon learned that the EF5 tornado had obliterated several square miles of the small city and claimed over 160 lives.

She continued sharing updates from her home over the next few days, and then received a call from National Red Cross Headquarters to deploy to the site. “It was my first disaster deployment and it literally changed the course of my life.”

She reported to the public affairs desk and quickly grasped that she was part of a truly national organization.

“The people who were there to support my neighbors had come from all over America. Red Crossers from the west coast to the east coast converged in the center of the country to help alleviate suffering. It was really inspiring to be part of that.”

She began learning the ropes from some of the best communicators in the country and was at the public affairs desk doing the work when she discovered her passion.

On day three, she was sitting at the table with Amy and Lu, two of the Advanced Public Affairs Team members, working on a media update and talking about life, loss, and all the disaster responses they had been part of with the Red Cross.

At that moment Nigel knew she had found her calling. “I said to them, ‘I want to do this work as my everyday job. This is my purpose.’”

In October of 2011 she was hired for the newly-formed position of Chief Communications Officer for the Southern Missouri Region. She returned to college and earned a Master’s Degree in communication with a focus on media and non-profit organizations, and she currently serves as the national Red Cross Director of Disaster Public Affairs. Today, she is the one who makes calls like the one she got in 2011, deploying volunteers to support communities across the country after disaster strikes.

“Joplin, and the fellow volunteers I met there, will forever hold a very important place in my heart,” she says. “I can’t tell my Red Cross story without Joplin, and I would not be the human I am today without the influence of those Red Crossers. It was a pivotal moment in my life. I found my life’s work and purpose in the midst of devastation.”

By Shoba Brown

Twenty-two hours after an EF-5 tornado wreaked havoc on the city of Joplin, Missouri, American Red Cross volunteer Peggy Gaines found herself in the midst of destruction like she’d never seen before.

“There was security everywhere, trees were decimated, blocks upon blocks of neighborhoods were gone, buildings were reduced to rubble and there were no street signs.  It was truly what I assumed a war zone looked like,” she said. “I was shocked at what I saw.”

Peggy Gaines and her partner volunteer drove an Emergency Response Vehicle from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Joplin and began offering food, snacks and water to people looking for parts of their homes, but finding nothing but empty slabs.

“I could see there was going to be a loss of life.  When I saw the hospital was destroyed—and I mean literally half of it was just blown away—I thought, how strong was this tornado?”

The first stories Peggy remembers hearing were about missing people.  Search and rescue teams scoured the hospital and some of the major retail stores and marked them with an X inside a circle to show the facility had been searched.  “I had never seen that done before, so it was pretty big to me.”

So how did the experience in Joplin affect Peggy?

“It compounds my compassion button,” she explains. “People are in need, and as long as you can give, that is what you should do … a little time on my part means a lot to them.”

Peggy feels that the best way to handle the stress of a relief operation is to lean on your fellow volunteers.

“Talk through things you saw, and felt, and did.  When you are not your best, your partner usually is. Your partner can make or break you, that’s for sure.”

Looking back, she sees the Joplin relief operation as a turning point in her life, confirmation of what she was meant to do.

“It all goes back to my Dad, who was a veteran of the Korean War.  He just always talked about the Red Cross.  As a kid, you don’t really hear those things until later, and then you start putting it together.  Joplin was a solidification of what I should be doing.  I had no idea I would get this involved with the Red Cross!”

“I don’t think people realize how tough it can be out there,” she says.

“Emotionally, it was one of the hardest experiences I have had. It was one of those experiences you are never going to forget, but you are glad you were there to help.”

By Yasmeen Saadi

It was June 7, 2011, Red Cross volunteer Sherri Odell’s last day in Joplin, Missouri after the massive tornado caused so much death and damage. In her blog, she wrote:

“I'm heading home tomorrow. I'm bruised...sunburnt...exhausted...and hot. Although I'm happy to be heading home to see my family and my pets, part of me will be left behind in the streets of Joplin, worrying about "my people" and hoping they're doing okay.”

For Sherri, each person she encountered in Joplin was one of “her people.” Coming from Missouri herself, the proximity of the May 22 tornado was especially impactful because, she said, it could have been her.

“I felt like these people were really truly my neighbors,” Sherri said. “Just by the grace of a few hundred miles, that could have been my own community, my own neighborhood, that was affected.”

A few days after the tornado hit, Sherri drove to Joplin and stayed there for three weeks. She worked at an emergency aid station, fed volunteers at headquarters and talked to the people in the community.

Despite responding to numerous hurricanes, wildfires and floods previously, no amount of training could have prepared Sherri for the destruction she saw firsthand in Joplin.

“You would be driving down the street and you would see an object, and your brain couldn't recognize it,” Sherri said. “So you would go into this confusion, and then it would take you a few seconds to realize that you're seeing an automobile. But it was so messed up beyond recognition and so wrecked. It was very surreal.”

After working at headquarters to assist other volunteers, Sherri spent her last week driving around the community, passing around food and water to the people, holding their hands, hugging them and listening to their stories.

She was inspired by the humility and resilience around her as she witnessed the community move from shock to acceptance to action.

“What it taught me was how resilient people can be in the face of a disaster,” Sherri said. “Sometimes we see things on TV or in person at a disaster, and we think to ourselves, ‘Oh my gosh, how can these people go on? They've lost everything.’ And then you actually start talking to people and you realize, along with them, that that was just stuff. They lost stuff, but they didn't lose their lives; they didn't lose their hope; they didn't lose their resiliency. And that's what keeps them going.”

A decade later, Sherri still remembers much of her time in Joplin and what she saw, felt and experienced will never be forgotten.

“What I saw in Joplin was a country coming together, putting aside whatever differences they might have had,” Sherri said. “It was the most rewarding experience that I had been in. Because you think you're going down there to help, but you come out of it changed and you come out of it transformed in a better way.”

By Susan Gallagher

As the native Californian watched the skies darken on a sunny Sunday in May, she heard something sounding like a freight train with a loud grinding noise and was totally confused.

Wildfires, earthquakes, mudslides Teri Layton knew. But what was this? Her Oklahoma-born husband realized what was coming and told her to grab the dogs and get into the bathtub. They were about to experience the 7th deadliest tornado in American history, with over 160 fatalities and more than 1,000 injuries.  It was an event that changed her life.

“We were spared major damage to our property, but the company I worked for was wiped out,” she remembers. “So, I went down to the university where the city asked volunteers to gather, and what I saw there simply shocked me.”  More than 80,000 volunteers had arrived to help a city of just 50,000.

“I was stunned that so many people would come all the way to Joplin to help people they did not know. The entire experience renewed my faith in humanity.”   

Most of the volunteers chose to work directly with disaster victims, but Teri volunteered to do data entry. She and a few others were handed huge stacks of forms each day and entered information about each volunteer into a database to help the city organize its response.  While stationed at emergency headquarters she encountered many dedicated volunteers from the American Red Cross.

“I knew the Red Cross collected blood from donors, but I had no idea they responded to disasters all over the nation—in Joplin they were everywhere.”  

A veteran business owner and administrator, Teri was so touched by what she experienced in the aftermath of the 2011 tornado that she took a position with the Red Cross as a Case Manager for tornado survivors. When that position ended a year later, she accepted an AmeriCorps position to assist with disaster management for the Red Cross.

In 2015 Teri moved to Kansas City where she serves as a Red Cross Disaster Program Specialist.  She has served in leadership positions at nearly a dozen disaster responses across the United States. She also serves as the liaison responsible for disaster response for ten counties in the Kansas City area, regularly responding to floods, fires and other disasters at all times of the day and night.

“It’s easy to get caught up in all the pessimism in this country, but the Joplin tornado showed me the power of compassion, and to me, that’s what the Red Cross is all about,” she said. “At the Red Cross, no one cares about the race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status of families and individuals who need help. We offer funding to help them in the early stages, and help connect them to resources so they can recover.”
 “But most of all, we offer compassion, caring, and a willingness to listen, even in the worst conditions at the times when people need us most.”

By Jim Gallagher

Two days after a mile-wide tornado flattened much of Joplin, Missouri, Pam Protzman was riding amid the rubble in an American Red Cross vehicle.

There she saw a middle-aged woman walking barefoot, picking through the ruins of her home.

The Red Cross crew stopped.  “You shouldn’t be doing that without shoes,” Pam told her. “There are nails, splinters.”

“I know,” said the woman.  “I’m just trying to see what’s left.’”

Pam and her crewmate were moved by the sight of it.

 “I offered her my shoes, but they didn’t fit,” she said. So, the crew drove to a thrift store and bought two pair in the right size.

When they returned, the woman told them her story. She and her husband were home when the category EF5 twister roared through. They went to the basement and hid behind a washer and dryer.

The storm ripped their house from above them, and sent the dryer skittering away, but left the couple alive to pick up the pieces, barefoot.

The woman, now in shoes, hugged the Red Cross crew as they left.

The tornado struck on May 22, 2011, killing at least 160 people and injuring more than 1,100, making it the deadliest twister to strike the U.S. in 64 years.  The Red Cross swung into action setting up shelters, delivering food and providing mental health and spiritual counseling.

Pam was a member of one of the disaster assessment teams that went throughout the city to catalog the location and extent of damage so the Red Cross could make best use of its resources. Joplin posed an unusual problem: On some streets, there were no houses left to assess. The team counted from intersections the driveways where houses used to be.

A single image still sticks in Pam’s mind:  A cross atop a church steeple, standing alone, with the rest of the church in rubble, and all the houses around it destroyed.

“At some houses, there was one wall standing, and nothing else,” she said.

The scene was sadder on streets where houses were upright, but badly damaged.

“A lot of people wouldn’t leave their residence. They’d be camped out in their front yard because they didn’t’ want looters. They were numb. We’d ask if they would want to come to our shelters, and they’d say, ‘Nope.  Nope.’” Pam recalled.  “They’d lost a lot and they didn’t want to lose any more.”

The enormity of what Pam witnessed struck her after returning to her Jefferson City home. She slept poorly for a week.

“I had not let it sink in. Did I really see all this?” Stuck in her mind was the smell of lumber, from all the splintered boards. “I don’t ever want to smell that again,” she said.

After processing it, she felt good about her work. “To help people – to be there when they’re at their lowest. That’s what the Red Cross is about.”

A retired nurse, mother of three and grandmother of three, Pam felt the same way when a tornado in 2019 hit her hometown but spared her home. Her firefighter husband headed to his station house and Pam hurried to the Red Cross office.

Staff and volunteers were heading in. Pam’s son towed a Red Cross trailer filled with shelter supplies to the Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

“Within one hour, we had a shelter open,” she recalled. “My goal was to get people out of the rain and into a safe shelter. Get them dry.  It was past midnight.”

Then came a call from the Jefferson City fire chief:  Come to the emergency operations center at police headquarters to help coordinate the response.

“What can you do?” the chief asked her, and she told him about the shelter, already up and running.  “We were told to expect 600 people. I thought, ‘My gosh!’ It ended up being only 20 or 30 the first night.”

Pam stayed on duty for 36 hours straight as the Red Cross coordinator, filling requests from emergency managers.

 “Everything went smoothly as far as the Red Cross,” she said.  Shelters were opened.  People were fed and kept safe.

Through disasters near and far, Protzman has noticed a common thread: “When the Red Cross rolls into town, the people take sigh of relief and thank us. They know help is here. That’s what I pride myself on.”