By: Kim Mailes, American Red Cross

After numerous deployments, I’ve discovered that every American Red Cross disaster relief operation has its own unique obstacles. So, a volunteer must be flexible to meet challenges that can change from minute to minute.

My recent Red Cross assignment to Guam tested my flexibility more than ever before.

On May 24, 2022, Typhoon Mawar struck the U.S. Territory of Guam as a Category 4 typhoon, bringing hurricane-force winds and heavy rain. It was the strongest storm to hit the territory in twenty years and caused massive devastation, leaving most of the Pacific island without electricity and safe drinking water for weeks. I had been watching television news closely and wasn’t surprised when the call came to be part of the Red Cross disaster relief operation.

The first challenge was simply getting to Guam. I arrived at the Red Cross staging site in Los Angeles two days after I got the call, but commercial air travel to Guam had been suspended and I was stuck for three days before continuing to Honolulu hoping to catch a military flight ferrying FEMA personnel and relief supplies. I waited in Hawaii another four days as flight after flight was canceled. Finally, a week after I left home, I arrived in Guam.

I quickly discovered that Guam is an unusual place. Just 34 miles long and 8 miles wide, the tiny speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is home to 150,000 people and two major U.S. military bases. The urban areas resemble a miniature version of any mid-size mainland U.S. city, but more than half the population —mostly indigenous Chamorros, Chuukese and other Micronesian ethnic groups — lived in sub-standard housing in the jungle-like rural terrains that suffered the brunt of the typhoon. These are the people who filled the Red Cross shelters and needed help the most.

My role as public affairs manager involved coordinating and disseminating Red Cross messages and information, interacting with local media, and gathering photos, videos and interviews to tell the story of the operation. These tasks were particularly difficult in Guam because of the political structure and the hyper-intense media environment. The small island is sub-divided into nineteen political subdivisions, each with its own elected mayor, and the remoteness of the island makes for a handful of very competitive media outlets, each seeking the big story. As I went about my duties each day, I was constantly interrupted to hurry to defuse a controversy at a service delivery site, or to be present for a shelter visit by a mayor, or to do an impromptu media interview to ensure the Red Cross message was being delivered accurately.

Guam was a tough deployment, no doubt. Seven thousand miles from home; a week’s journey to get there; then a seventeen-hour flight home. It was hot there — oh, my, was it ever hot — and for the first week there was no air conditioning in my lodging. I worked long, hard days and spent three weeks separated from those I love.

So, was it worth it? You bet it was.

There’s a humanitarian fire in my belly to help others, and the American Red Cross lets me fulfill that mission. I love the people I work with, and on every deployment, I add a few more lifelong friends to my address book, fellow Red Cross volunteers I’ll meet again after the next hurricane on the Gulf Coast, or the next tornado in Mississippi, or the next flood in Arkansas, or the next wildfire in California. We’re brothers and sisters in arms, devoted to delivering the Red Cross mission.

When I return home after a deployment, people ask what I remember most, expecting that I’ll recall the awful destruction, or the local cuisine, or some famous historical site. But my answer is always the same: I remember the faces of the people we serve. This deployment was no different.

More than anything else this time, I’ll remember the gentle people of Guam who were so battered by the typhoon. Men weathered by the sun, women in their brightly patterned blouses with kids hanging onto their flowing skirts. Those people are the reason the Red Cross deployed hundreds of volunteers thousands of miles from the mainland and devoted vast sums toward disaster relief.

I’ll remember those who arrived at our shelters with blank stares of despair, but began breathing a little easier after a hot meal served by a smiling Red Cross volunteer. I’ll remember the children who arrived wildly confused, but were laughing and playing with other children the next day. I’ll remember the resolve in the eyes of a father who left a Red Cross distribution site with a shovel to scoop the debris away from the remains of his house and a tarp to cover his leaking roof so his family could return home.

And I’ll always treasure a vivid snapshot memory of the indigenous man way back in the jungle who had weathered the typhoon in his little shack and was standing amidst the remains of his battered home. He told me the shovel, the rake, the tarp, and the bottled water the Red Cross team brought that day were much appreciated. But what meant more than anything, he said, was simply knowing that someone cares.

Because of climate extremes, the American Red Cross is responding to more disasters than ever before. You can become a volunteer and travel to places where help is needed most. To find out more, go to www.redcross.org.