Losing the roof of his house to Hurricane Andrew motivated Roberto Baltodano to become a Red Cross volunteer

By Gemma Haywood

Miami Red Cross volunteer Roberto Baltodano’s first experience with the Red Cross was as a recipient of Red Cross aid during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. When Andrew hit South Florida, the roof of Baltodano’s South Dade house was destroyed.

With no work for two to three weeks due to a post-Andrew power outage, rather than sit at home doing nothing, Baltodano joined the Red Cross as a volunteer Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) driver.

“I remember an ERV coming to our neighborhood and feeding us the meals that we’re feeding today in New York,” he said. “So I’ve been on the other side of that window. I was a client.”

When Baltodano was laid off a year and a half ago after 25 years in the financial services sector, he decided to increase his involvement with the Red Cross and become a full-time volunteer in Miami, specializing in disaster mass care, or feeding.

When the East Coast went on alert for Hurricane Sandy, Baltodano was part of an advance team stationed around the NY region, ready to coordinate the deployment of Red Cross ERVs in the wake of Sandy.

After the storm, Red Cross vehicles were deployed to the New York region from across the US. Some of the first to arrive were from Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. As the full scale of the disaster became clear, the Red Cross’s full, nationwide contingent of 320 emergency vehicles were sent to the storm-hit region; 180 are now in operation in the New York area.

Baltodano’s first role in the relief effort was to coordinate sending six Red Cross vehicles, stocked with 57,000 heater meals, to Long Island—one of the first meal deliveries of the relief operation.

Baltodano has been on the job for almost three weeks now, and recently became involved in the procurement side of the relief operation. He visited a shelter in Bohemia, N.Y., which was housing around 50 to 80 local residents. While cots and blankets were well stocked, food and other supplies were running low. Baltodano arranged for milk, oranges, essential foods and baby supplies such as Pampers, to be delivered.

A spooky Halloween

Three weeks on a disaster relief operation brings a variety of experiences. At the beginning, many Red Cross volunteers were staying in shelters.

“There were two of us sleeping at a high school the first day,” Baltodano recalled. He said it was spooky staying all alone in a high school around Halloween.

After that, Baltodano spent several nights in a staff shelter, moving to a hotel when he began working out of Greater NY Red Cross HQ in Manhattan.

“For the most part though,” he said, “our ERV teams and the people working in the kitchens are staying in staff shelters.”

Having a hot dog in New York; it’s something normal

Twenty years of Red Cross experience means that Baltodano has seen the organization develop.

“When I began we didn’t have the quality of food we have today,” he said. “We had MREs; military ready-to-eat meals.”

Today, the Red Cross works hard to provide meals that will make people feel comfortable and remind them of home. The inclusion of salads and vegetables ensures that meals are healthy. A few days ago here in New York, the Red Cross was serving up hot dogs.

“We adapt our meals to each region.” Baltodano explained. “We need to help people get back to normal. And having a hot dog in New York; it’s something normal.”

On this relief operation Baltodano finds it rewarding to sharing the knowledge he’s gained through the years with new Red Cross volunteers. Baltodano explained to the many new ERV drivers that they would see a lot of emotions during the days ahead and that people would be crying on their shoulders. He advised his new colleagues to visualize such situations ahead of time so that they would be mentally prepared.

“It allowed them to be stronger and to be able to help the client,” he said. “Not only be handing them a plate of food, but being the pillar of strength they needed to be.”

The importance of preparedness

 

The most important message that Baltodano would like to get across is the importance of preparedness.

“Whether it’s for a fire that happens every nine minutes across the U.S., or for a hurricane that may not happen for the next 100 years, you should always be prepared," he said. "And to be involved in volunteer work is the best way to learn preparedness."

Baltodano has just signed on for another three weeks of Red Cross Sandy relief work.

To learn more about his work with the Red Cross, follow him on Twitter at @Twittnrob.

Six Strangers, One Mission

It was 11 am and the sun was attempting to pierce through the foggy sky in Lido Beach, Long Island. With a huge smile on her face, Faye Lagares of Queens, N.Y., began loading food, water and comfort kits filled with blankets, trash bags and other items into Red Cross vehicles.

Faye, who works for Citibank, is a brand new volunteer. Citibank’s volunteer program is dedicated to connecting their employees with volunteer opportunities in their communities.

“A request came in for around 50 volunteers and in a matter of hours every slot was filled,” said Faye. “Many of our employees were affected [by Sandy] and I just felt I needed to do something.”

Jessica Fleurimond from Philadelphia, Steve Brown from Texas, Giselle Gomez from California, Kabir Tombat, an AmeriCorps member currently working with the Greater New York Red Cross region, and Joel Greenberg, a Red Cross Long Island board member all joined Faye, going door to door throughout Lido Beach distributing meals and supplies.

One of the team’s main goals was to reach senior citizens living in high-rise apartments who still did not have power. At each building, the group divided into teams of two, going to floor-to-floor and ensuring that all residents received food, water, blankets and supplies.

“It was just truly incredible how we all quickly came together to help,” said Giselle Gomez. “At the end of the day, we were not strangers, but instead a family.”

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.