My Hurricane Harvey Story: Karen Holmes

“Why I Use My Vacation Time to Deploy as an American Red Cross Volunteer”

Written by: Rosalind SE Carney, volunteer

Karen Holmes works for the Federal Government as a Safety Officer and is a Cadre Member with the Disaster Team. Karen works in an agency that oversees organizations such as AmeriCorps, working to ensure safe and healthy environments by providing CPR and first aid training and certification. Her role requires her to be in DC so she is unable to deploy on missions associated with her job. However, she knew that her experiences would benefit the Red Cross, so Karen joined as a volunteer in 2008.

On her own initiative, Karen pursued several training opportunities within the Red Cross to diversify the types of assistance she can provide locally and nationally. She is a certified Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) driver, shelter trailer driver and shelter manager, instructor for CPR/first aid and a Disaster Action Team (DAT) responder.

On 23rd September 2017, Karen used two weeks of her vacation time to deploy to Dickinson County, TX, to help with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Each day, Karen and fellow volunteers loaded up an ERV with meals prepared by the Southern Baptist mobile kitchens. Karen drove the ERV and helped serve meals to those in need. Interacting with people is Karen’s favorite Red Cross activity. She describes how people impacted by Hurricane Harvey initially had a look of devastation on their faces that turned to a beacon of hope at the sight of the ERV.

Karen saw a community that was just starting to rebuild. The devastation was evident–furniture and clothing on the streets, children running out into the streets to obtain meals and people who had not eaten in a day or two because they had missed the prior visit(s). Many people did not have electricity or a working stove, and some were sleeping on mattresses on the floor, not wanting to leave their homes to go to a shelter. Whatever the individual circumstance, the residents were so thankful that the Red Cross was there. In four days, Karen and her fellow volunteers served 1,078 meals in one area and delivered 300 meals to a church another time.

Karen enjoyed giving people the very special touch for which the Red Cross is known. Karen is grateful that her employers are so supportive, telling her that they are happy she deploys as they know how much this volunteer role with the Red Cross means to her.

Learn more about Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief.

 

AmeriCorps in Corpus Cristi TX Supporting Disaster Response

Written by: Rebecca Callahan, volunteer

It's always a better operation when AmeriCorps arrives on the scene.

For Sridhar Srinivasan, a volunteer with the American Red Cross in the Nation Capital Region, AmeriCorps went above and beyond for those in need. Sridhar is currently deployed to Corpus Christi, TX as part of the Department of Homeland Security Surge Capacity Force (SCF). A DHS employee, Sridhar volunteered for the SCF and has been deployed for over a month as Assistant Site Manager at the Corpus Christi FEMA Responder Service Center (RSC). In that capacity, he is working alongside AmeriCorps Volunteers from across the nation (NCCC, Montana Conservation Corps and Texas Conservation Corps) who were staying at the RSC Sridhar helped run.  

Shortly after Harvey impacted Corpus Christi, AmeriCorps volunteers arrived at the RSC and are supporting recovery efforts in multiple ways; from helping homeowners remove downed trees, water damaged roofs and drywall, flood damaged belongings, etc. They are also working to abate mold-affected structures and helping in every way they can to bring some sense of normalcy to neighborhoods hit by Hurricane Harvey. These volunteers went above and beyond, when they donated prizes they won in a camp basketball tournament to affected homeowners. This included a $100 gift certificate provided by Mr. Bruce Wagner of RDI-the contractor responsible for the RSC. 

Thanks Bruce and AmeriCorps!

AmeriCorps is a federal program that engages service minded Americans in intensive community service at nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. The participants in the program are referred to as “members.” The American Red Cross has managed and hosted AmeriCorps programs since the program’s founding in 1994. 

Learn more: Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Response and Relief Information.

Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts: Peter’s Story as a Volunteer Deployed to Texas

Written by: Rosalind SE Carney, volunteer

At 6 pm on Saturday, August 26, 2017, Peter Benjamin received an urgent request from the Red Cross Disaster Relief Response Team to deploy the following morning to Texas to help with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. At 9 am the next morning, Peter and a fellow volunteer drove an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) from Washington, DC to Houston, TX, a journey that would take four days. Peter’s initial plan was to drive to Houston via Dallas in order to avoid the hurricane. Approaching Texas, he received instructions to go via Baton Rouge, LA. However, weather maps showed this was not advisable due to the path of the hurricane, so Peter went back to his initial plan. When he and his co-driver arrived in Dallas, he called the Red Cross disaster response headquarters in Houston to ask the best route to get there. The response was “By boat!” Roads to the east and north of Houston were closed, so the only option was to go west of the center of the hurricane. After driving to Austin and then going east, Peter and his co-driver had covered two-thirds of Texas by the time they reached Houston.

Peter then spent nine days serving the community of Katy, part of greater Houston. Each morning, the ERV was loaded up with meals prepared by the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief mobile kitchen. He and at least one other person then went to locations where the hurricane had done substantial damage and people were returning to their homes. Sounding the horn of the ERV and speaking through the loudspeaker “American Red Cross, free hot food” he encouraged locals to come outside. From the ERV, Peter and his team served hot food, snacks and water. Much-needed support was also given by simply talking with people, letting them know that the Red Cross was there for them, that they will get through this and facilitating connections with local resources. After the lunch meals were served, Peter drove the ERV back to the mobile kitchen to load up meals for dinner and went back into the community. Because he was able to provide assistance to people at their time of great need, the impact of his volunteer work was incredibly rewarding. The photo shows handmade thank you cards that Peter received from two children whose family he helped during his service.

In Peter’s role as Volunteer Disaster Action Team Lead, he also assists people in Montgomery Country and the Washington DC region who are displaced from their homes by fires, floods or other disasters. He provides advice, support and immediate financial assistance to people in their time of need.

Peter has been involved with the Red Cross for 12 years and travels to as many as three major disasters annually. He has worked in public service throughout his career, from mission planning and crew training for the Apollo lunar missions, to an executive role in the Federal Transit Administration, to Chairman of the Board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Peter is now serving his sixth two-year term as Mayor of Garrett Park, MD.

Peter finds great satisfaction from his volunteer work and knows the difference he makes to people’s lives. Whether responding to a local or national disaster, the people he helps typically have a common response, “It is so wonderful that you have been here to help, I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

Learn more about Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Response and Relief

Red Cross Volunteer Alex Prog is “Here to Serve”

Twenty-five years young and full of incredible energy, Alex Prog, is on his first deployment as a Red Cross Volunteer. When the call came to assist people in Houston, Texas, whose homes have been destroyed by floodwaters from the torrential, record-breaking, spring storms, Alex did not hesitate. He stepped forward, took two weeks off from his job, and signed on as a driver of a Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV).

Alex is so excited about the opportunity to help he literally bounces as he interacts with fellow volunteers and goes about his job. “I’m here to serve…being here gives me a sense of purpose…It feels like I’m doing something with my life,” he enthused. 

On this day Alex, along with his partner, Red Cross Volunteer Chris Schuler from Nashville, Tennessee, were cruising the streets of the Willow Meadows and Willow Bend areas of Houston in a Red Cross ERV, distributing water, food, and snacks to people busy carting cherished possessions, now saturated by waters filled with a toxic brew of chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and who knows what else, from their homes. “We will be back with a meal for dinner” and “what else do you need?” were their constant refrains.

“Should we be wearing gloves? My hands have been burning after handling this stuff,” asked one resident. Another indicated an interest in obtaining cleaning supplies. Alex took their addresses and careful notes to report back to his supervisor at the Disaster Operations Center so that Red Cross cleanup kits, containing gloves and cleaning supplies could be delivered. 

When not deployed, Alex is a student at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, pursuing a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds the Bachelor of Science Degree in the same subject from the University of Michigan. 

“What can I say, I’m a geek.” said Alex. “During high school I set up an Internet server in the basement of my mother’s house and was a member of my high school robotics club and the marching band.” 

But when Alex moved to Maryland in 2012 he broadened his interests by looking for opportunities to help others. “I really wanted to do something meaningful. First, I volunteered for a food bank, but I couldn’t stand just sorting cans….I wanted to interact with people,” he declared. 

Then he found the Red Cross: “There’s something addictive about responding to disasters…. Back home I’m on call as a DAT [Disaster Action Team] Lead one week out of every month and volunteer as a team member at other times. I get calls in the middle of the night to respond to home fires…. I’ve been to a whole bunch of fires. I hope it will be the worst day of people’s lives and that things get better. Some fire clients are very proactive, getting on with the things they need to do. Others are withdrawn, sitting on the sidelines. Those are the ones I try to make sure I notice,” Alex declaimed. 

“I like the Red Cross because it serves everyone. It’s that principle of neutrality. That’s a big thing…. Other organizations often have a second agenda, but the Red Cross is just there to provide help when it’s needed,” Alex concluded. 

You can join Alex in helping the residents of Texas and Oklahoma, many of whom have had their homes and lives devastated by this spring’s outbreak of tornadoes and flooding, by making a financial contribution to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Just go to www.redcross.org , call 800-REDCROSS, or text “redcross” to 90999 for a one-time $10.00 donation.