By: Susan Gallagher, American Red Cross

American Red Cross volunteer Don Barnett can assemble data, draw correlations, and determine what is essential and what is just noise. But the compassion this American Red Cross volunteer feels for the people of his adopted hometown is what really stands out. That was never truer than immediately after the 2019 tornado disaster in Jefferson City.

After spending his childhood moving from state to state, living in Illinois, Texas, California, and Washington, Don spent his high school high school years in Massachusetts. But since his family was from Independence, KS, he headed there after high school to attend college and live with his grandparents. Then, like his dad, Don joined the Air Force.

After military service, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and became an expert in statical analysis, planning and research.

“I began my career as an analyst at the Missouri Division of Employment Security in Kansas City,” he said. “I moved to Jefferson City with a job at Youth Services, which is responsible for the care and treatment of youth committed to custody by juvenile courts. I then spent many years in Jefferson City evaluating energy efficiency programs for the Department of Natural Resources.”

He retired after 29 years in state government, and after watching television news showing Red Cross volunteers helping others, he joined up in 2009. Since then, Don has been an active volunteer for the Jefferson City-based Red Cross Central and Northern Missouri Chapter.

During his Red Cross volunteer career, Don has responded to 216 fires as a Disaster Action Team member. He has also deployed many times to disaster relief operations across the country, driving emergency response vehicles, and he is a whiz at damage assessment — determining where the worst destruction has created the greatest need for recovery assistance.

In 2019, Don had plenty of work to do close to home. On May 22nd, Jefferson City was hit by a tornado producing peak winds of 160 mph, which traveled 32 miles through central Missouri. In Jefferson City alone, the storm damaged 516 residential structures and 80 government buildings, in addition to 82 commercial buildings. There were no deaths, but 33 people suffered injuries, and insurance claims rose to $170 million.

The night the storm hit, Don and his wife, Mary Ellen, began to watch multiple television reports on the worsening weather.

“At midnight I realized the severity of what was happening and told my wife I was going into the Red Cross headquarters,” Don recalled, adding that three other stalwart volunteers showed up there about the same time and began assessing what they could do. A Red Cross shelter was quickly established at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Don began calling Red Cross shelter volunteers, and the foursome hooked up the shelter trailer and headed to the school to set up cots and other supplies. Then Don moved on to a disaster response office set up at the First United Methodist Church. There he was assigned to take a newly hired staff person with him to conduct damage assessment.

“It was shocking,” he recalled. “I was so upset about the scale of what I saw I just kept working for two full days completing disaster assessments on 125 residential sites. At one point, I was exhausted. But somehow, I felt I could not stop because this was my town now. People I knew from all the years I had lived here were affected. It was incredibly sad, but we made a difference in their lives. We helped them at a time when they really needed help most.”