By Jim Gallagher
There were bruises on Marcia Vance’s face. She’s not sure how she got them. They happened in the chaotic moments when a tornado chased her down her basement stairs then swept away the house above her.
She and her husband went to the basement when they heard the tornado warnings on the evening of December 10. But she climbed back up for a moment just as violent winds swirled around the house. She headed back down quickly, but before she reached the bottom, her house blew away.
“When we crawled out, the house was gone,” she said of the twister that struck on the evening of December 10. Only the floor remains of their rural home, near Defiance in St. Charles County.
Helping the Vances, and people like them, is a big part of why the Red Cross exists.
Up in the rain and dark and wind, Marcia Vances’ main concern was her elderly parents. They live perhaps a quarter mile away across a field. Marcia couldn’t make the trek – she had only one shoe and the ground was covered with debris. “For about 15 or 20 minutes, I had no idea if they were okay.”
They were. Their house was heavily damaged, but the elderly couple managed to walk away.
The Red Cross arrived in Defiance the night of the tornado, carrying food for survivors and first responders, and ready to offer shelter and solace. For the next two days, Red Cross crews patrolled the destruction zone, offering help. All free, of course.
Outside one large home, a young man asked for tarps, work gloves and drinks. A crew of friends and volunteers was arriving that afternoon to help patch the damage. His voice choked up as he explained that it was his family’s first house, and their first Christmas in it.
Red Cross volunteers Jay Couch and Vivian Farrell pulled the supplies our of their Emergency Response Vehicle, the standard Red Cross food and supply van.
The tornado skipped through the largely rural area, toppling trees by the dozen, tearing a roof off here, flattening a house there, leaving nearby homes completely untouched. In one home, a Christmas tree stood in a living room, seemingly undamaged. The wall next to it was gone, opening the house to the street outside. About 25 homes were damaged.
Red Cross volunteers encountered Marcia Vance near the void that was once her home. Her parents – in their 80s – were sitting nearby. They weren’t alone. A crowd of local volunteers spent the day hauling debris in the disaster zone. A call for help had brought at least 50 volunteers, and the Red Cross made sure they had snacks, drinks, tarps and work gloves.
Couch and Farrell took up the Vance family’s case.
The Red Cross provides immediate assistance to victims of disasters, with few questions asked. The goal is to get them through the first few days – with food, shelter and a change clothes – and then assess the situation.
In disasters such as the recent tornado in Defiance, the Red Cross provides victims with direct financial assistance. The amount varies with family size. Red Cross caseworkers follow up a day or two later, to guide clients through the recovery process.
In disasters with a larger of number of homes impacted, the agency opens shelters and serves hot food as we work with other charities and government agencies.
Couch and Farrell called a third volunteer, with computer access, and financial help was delivered in minutes.
Jay Couch retired after a career as an executive in finance. He had an odd introduction to the Red Cross. In 2004, he was interviewing for a job with a human resources director. The man seemed sleepy, and Couch wondered if he just wasn’t interested.
Not so. “I’m sorry,” the man said. “I was up all night at an apartment fire.” He was a volunteer for the Red Cross.
Couch didn’t take the job, but he did get an avocation. Years later, when his kids were grown, he remembered the conversation and signed up as a volunteer.
His reward comes from helping people in distress. “What we’re doing today really revs my engine,” he said as he drove the Red Cross van through the tornado zone.
Farrell, retired from a job with the carpenters union, has been volunteering for 10 years. She is humbled and amazed by the thanks she gets.
“We’ll be handing drinks to a firefighter, and he’s been fighting a fire in 100 degree weather and he’s covered in sweat and he says to me, ‘Thanks.’ He’s risking his life and he’s thanking me. I thank him right back for what he is doing,” she says.