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.”
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