Red Cross Offers Health Care Assistance in the Wake of Sandy

Zamia Garcia sits as American Red Cross volunteer John Griffiths, an EMT from Rochester, New York, checks her blood pressure. She said she was glad to know she had nothing to worry about. Zamia was among thousands of New Yorkers affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Zamia Garcia was busy picking up clothing and food at the Coney Island distribution site where the American Red Cross was among several relief agencies offering assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

She was among hundreds of Coney Island resident who passed by the Red Cross table where registered nurses, EMTs and mental health counselors waited to help the steady stream of people passing by. She stopped and asked about whether they could check on her blood pressure.

John Griffiths, an EMT from Rochester, New York and Red Cross volunteer, led Zaima to a chair where he applied the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to her arm to check her blood pressure. He told her the blood pressure reading which Zamia said she was relieved to know.

Myrna Sullivan, a registered nurse who came from St. Louis as a Red Cross volunteer, provided nutritional counseling and assurances regarding her diet. That is normal in this situation because you have been under stress, she explained and Zaima said she felt relieved to hear that. Myrna said the main concerns the health care workers have seen include blood pressure, diabetes and asthma, all conditions often made worse by a great amount of stress such as what thousands of New Yorkers have endured since Sandy.

Health care workers also walked around talking to people waiting in line to see if they had any issues needing immediate attention.

In some cases, people couldn't refill needed prescriptions because their pharmacies were damaged or destroyed by the storm. In those cases, the Red Cross works with the people to connect with another pharmacy. In addition to health care, Red Cross volunteers also provided hot meals and distributed to nearby residents laundry bags filled with such items as a blanket, flashlight and batteries, packages of towels and hand sanitizers.

Volunteer Spotlight: Jim Kuhlmann

Jim Kuhlmann is the manager of the American Red Cross Kitchen No. 1, operating in the Home Depot parking lot on Staten Island, but that doesn’t mean he spends his days slaving over a hot stove. Jim is in charge of getting meals prepared, loaded onto Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) and sent out each day to the thousands of people rebuilding their lives from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

When an ERV arrives in any given neighborhood, many people line up to get hot meals, snacks and water. At times, people are reduced to tears when handed their hot meals and they thank the Red Cross volunteers for helping them.

It’s this kind of scene that makes Jim feel like he is really in the people helping business.

“The whole purpose of this is to serve the client,” said the Wichita resident, now on his 12th Red Cross deployment. His first deployment was as an ERV driver after Katrina.

Those working with Jim praise his quiet, deliberate manner in running the operations which includes loading some two dozen ERVs with 8,000 to 10,000 lunches and dinners each day for delivery to those in need.

As the ERVs line up to receive supplies at the various pallets, Jim watches as the vehicles move in and out of the area and is satisfied with what he sees. The goal is to have all of them loaded and on their way within an hour.

Near the large trailers parked with various items destined for distribution is the area where the food is cooked by members of the Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers.

Jim’s boss is Steve Ade, of Salina, Kansas, the mass care (feeding) chief who oversees four kitchen operations, including the one on Staten Island.

Steve said, “He runs it like a sewing machine. Any Red Cross disaster response I’m on, I want Jim running the kitchen.”

Volunteer Spotlight: Blythe Argenbright

Manhattanite Blythe Argenbright has been a Red Crosser since 2006, when she interned at the Boston chapter while in college. In 2009, having moved to Atlanta, she volunteered during that year’s devastating floods, helping provide food to affected individuals and families.

Argenbright relocated to New York City last year, just before Hurricane Irene hit. She immediately pitched in, volunteering for Red Cross staffing services during the Irene relief effort.

Not surprisingly, Argenbright began volunteering for Sandy before the storm hit, coming to Red Cross headquarters in Manhattan on Sunday, Oct. 28. She’s been here for at least a few hours a day ever since.

At first, she helped staff the volunteer hotline: “It was inspiring to see how many people were emailing and calling,” she said, “even while the storm was going on, hoping to help fellow New Yorkers.”

Since then, Argenbright, who is a case manager at the Center for Urban Community Services, a women’s transitional living facility, has been registering volunteers for the Sandy relief effort morning before work and on the weekends.

“I like the work the Red Cross does,” she says. “It’s effective in meeting community needs in times of disaster.”

Volunteer Spotlight: Amanda Sun

Amanda Sun of Bellevue, Washington, was on vacation in New York when Hurricane Sandy brought devastation to a large swath of the New York and New Jersey coastline. After finding her flight was canceled, Amanda realized she now had an opportunity to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Keen to help in any way she could, Amanda extended her stay so she could volunteer with the Greater New York Red Cross. Over the last eight days Amanda has been out in the field with the Red Cross mobile feeding teams, bringing much-needed supplies to residents in storm-impacted areas.

She has also been involved in administrative work and feeding operations. Amanda says that one of the best parts of volunteering with the Red Cross is the people she meets and the shared interest in volunteering and humanitarianism.

Volunteer Spotlight: Pat Gilliland

Pat Gilliland is a long-time Red Cross volunteer from the North Florida chapter. Pat is just one of many Red Cross volunteers from across the U.S. who have been deployed to the Greater New York Region to help deliver Red Cross services to the communities most impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

In a disaster as large-scale as Sandy, local Red Cross chapters rely on the support of volunteers from other regions in order to put into action a complex relief operation. For Hurricane Sandy, Pat has been working as a mass care (feeding) administrator, a role that involves organization, problem-solving and an ability to stay calm in what is often a very stressful situation. Pat says she has dedicated herself to volunteering because of the help she is able to give to people.

NAACP/Red Cross Disaster Strike Team

The NAACP Red Cross Disaster Strike Team has been on scene helping survivors of Hurricane Sandy since Nov. 1, 2012. This extraordinary team works in tandem with the Red Cross, helping to feed victims of disasters and to distribute relief items, including Red Cross comfort and cleanup kits.

Team leader Gene Collins revived an agreement between the Red Cross and the NAACP from 1981. Since Collins has taken this agreement under his care the team has expanded to approximately 100 members nationwide. They now deploy wherever the Red Cross deploys. Recently, they were deployed to Louisiana, Florida, Joplin Missouri, and now New York City.

Gene Collins, who is heading up the NYC group, goes ahead of the team and does an assessment of communities and reports the needs back to the Red Cross for action. Another member, George Thomas, said they received a request for 5,000 blankets and some hot meals from one New York community. Because of their outstanding ability to connect with the communities they serve, this “strike team” is extremely effective.

On a recent mission during the current Superstorm Sandy deployment, the team came upon a family who was concerned about their 79-year-old aunt whom they had not heard from since the storm’s impact. She was on the 17th floor of a high rise apartment building. The NAACP and Red Cross volunteers climbed the 17 floors. Leonard Favorite, Gene Collins and James Richardson were able to reach her.

Leonard said, “I knocked on the door and told her ‘I came all the way from Texas to rescue you.’”

He carried her to the ground floor and re-united her with her family.

Leonard said, “There were many tears of joy shed when she was reunited with her family.”

Volunteer Spotlight: Sandi Bednorz

By Gemma Haywood

When Hurricane Sandy hit America’s east coast, creating a storm surge that decimated thousands of homes, Sandi Bednorz knew she had to help.

Hearing an urgent request for Red Cross volunteers, Bednorz responded. This was her first time volunteering with the Red Cross. Alongside other volunteers she undertook disaster response training and has since been working as a Red Cross mass care (feeding) coordinating manager in New York City, as part of the ongoing Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief operation.

Bednorz moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., from Orlando, Florida, eight months ago. Just before the arrival of the Hurricane, she had quit her job as a corporate event planner. This gave her the flexibility to sign up with the Red Cross to help those affected by Sandy.

Her daily activities include facilitating staff communications, creating organization charts, identifying staff work space, and helping in other areas wherever needed.

“I’ve been here for eight days volunteering thirteen hours a day, and I do it because it’s what you do, you see people in need and you help them,” she said. “Knowing the amount of people we are helping, knowing how many meals the Red Cross kitchens make and it's all volunteer-based is very satisfying."