Red Cross Response Report
Sacramento, CA — The Red Cross Capitol Region in California reports its volunteers responded to 146 major disasters this year with one of the largest being the Rim Fire. In all, the organization helped in 525 regional emergency disasters and supported 11 of the largest disaster relief efforts in the country in 2013. Those included Hurricane Sandy, the Colorado Floods and the Rim Fire.
Local Red Cross Spokesperson Jordan Scott says the Rim Fire put the agency to the test. “We were able to deliver food, shelter and support. That support included mental and emotional health support. Anything that the residents needed we were able to deliver,” said Scott.
The organization pulled 250 volunteers from around the state and sheltered more than 184 people for two weeks in the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora.
The Capitol Region includes 24-counties in central California. Region Officials say they provided disaster assistance to more than 800 families. Many of those were house fires.
The Red Cross offered these statistics for their disaster responses across the country in 2013:
• 16,700 workers-many of them volunteers-providing care, comfort and support to those in need.
• 89,000 contacts by specially trained workers with disaster victims who needed mental health support or health services, which is more people than the amount of travelers who pass through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on an average day.
• 1.8 million meals and snacks, the equivalent of feeding the entire population of Philadelphia lunch in a day.
• 29,000 overnight stays in shelters for people forced from their homes by disasters, enough to fill the largest hotel in New York City for more than two weeks.
• 1 million relief items distributed, including more than 33,700 toothbrushes.
• $74 million to more than 60 nonprofit partners to help people and communities recover from Superstorm Sandy.
