Red Cross tent colony, Hialeah, Fla., 1926.

Part II: The 1920s and the Rise of the Red Cross Chapter
Following World War I, the American Red Cross experienced extraordinary growth among its chapters nationwide. From a total of only 107 chapters in 1914, the number leaped to its all-time peak of 3,864 in 1918.

Prior to the war, disaster services were provided largely by the national headquarters. Following this massive expansion, however, new policies were put in place giving the primary obligation for disaster relief to the newly-formed chapters.

Chapters were expected to be ready at once without waiting for notification from headquarters. According to the "Manual of Disaster Relief," first issued by the Red Cross in 1919, local preparedness committees were to be responsible during disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

Is Your Chapter Prepared? American Red Cross Disaster Relief Drive poster by Ruth Deggas, 1927. A homeless girl from the tent colony with her prize possession, Hialeah, Fla., 1926.

At the actual disaster site, the chapter would set up an emergency headquarters to administer relief and designate suitable public buildings in the community as temporary shelters. The chapter would then recruit medical and nursing personnel from pre-arranged lists and, with help from local officials, prepare and distribute food, clothing and bedding to the victims. Volunteers were also recruited to distribute food from canteens and take care of young children and the elderly. They would also donate their services maintaining communications and providing transportation.

Once the immediate disaster emergency needs had been met, individual rehabilitation work began. Each household's case was registered and evaluated by trained social workers. The goal in this phase was to restore the community to near pre-disaster levels as far Red Cross resources would allow.

As the Red Cross put this manual's arrangements into practice, the procedures were gradually modified as a result of greater experience with individual disasters. By 1924, after a number of changes and refinements, this revised plan was to remain the blueprint for nearly all domestic disaster relief for more than a decade.

The biggest disaster to test the American Red Cross during this period was the Miami Hurricane of 1926 that hit the city some 25 years before hurricanes were assigned official names. On September 17, the hurricane swept up the Atlantic Ocean and struck southern sections of the state with the force of a Category 4 storm, with winds over 130 miles per hour. The storm killed between 325 and 650 people, according to recent estimates, and caused the most property damage of any storm to that date. The city of Miami and its residents were hit especially hard.

Although the Weather Bureau in Washington had issued a warning that was published in local newspapers (radios were not common then) that "a very severe storm" was on its way through Florida, few took the warning very seriously. Many of the more than 200,000 people in the storm's path were not native to the state and had never experienced a hurricane, let alone one of this strength and size. The storm made landfall in the early evening. Shortly after dawn the next morning, there was a lull that led many residents to believe the storm was over and to venture out onto the beaches and streets, where a half hour later many were killed by the 12-foot storm surge and flying debris as the winds picked up to 140 miles per hour.

The relief effort was complicated by the fact that over-speculation in real estate had caused a financial depression in Florida that would hit the rest of the nation several years later. Aggravating the problem of finding shelter for thousands of homeless residents was the unusually large percentage of migrant workers, tourists and transients who had no one to turn to and the fact that state and municipal leaders downplayed the disaster and its damage. They showed far more concern over the impact on the winter tourist industry than over the plight of the hurricane victims.

These diverging agendas, the lack of trained caseworkers, the lack of an adequate disaster allocation from the national headquarters, and the inevitable controversies over fundraising truly tested the 45-year-old Red Cross. The hurricane recovery also revealed weaknesses in relief administration that needed to be remedied if the Red Cross was to maintain full public confidence.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Red Cross stayed on the job in Florida for more than five months after the hurricane. Along with hundreds of paid and volunteers relief workers were more than 350 Red Cross nurses—the largest number yet to be called to a domestic disaster—who responded to the nationwide appeal.

The Miami Hurricane of 1926 was the first large domestic disaster of the post-World War I era where the Red Cross had full charge of the relief efforts. The experience acquired in responding to this hurricane provided the Red Cross with a deeper understanding of disaster casework and accounting and procurement practices that would prove invaluable in the years to come.

Part I: The Clara Barton Era
In the face of modern day hurricane seasons, we seldom take time to reflect how far we have come in our ability to predict and prepare for the worst. In the early years of the American Red Cross, there was no government system or agency in charge of disaster preparedness and relief, (FEMA would not be established until 1979) evacuation plans were unheard of, electronic communications such as telephones and telegraphs and storm forecasting were inconsistent and still in their infancy.
more...

Part III: The 1950s and the Decade of Disaster
During the "Atomic Age," America reached new heights of prosperity brought on by the post-war rise of business and industry. The population grew rapidly as a result of the "baby boom," and more communities were established along hurricane-vulnerable coastal areas.
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