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The Red Cross recently entered into an agreement with the City of Toronto that formalizes our relationship during times of disaster. It’s an important step towards ensuring Torontonians affected by large-scale and small-scale disasters, such as fire, floods or lengthy power outages, will have the support of the Red Cross when they need it most.

Canadian Red Cross disaster response volunteers are providing assistance to approximately 1,500 people from the Northern Ontario community of Kashechewan which experienced severe flooding earlier this week. Evacuees are being sheltered in host communities across Ontario, including Thunder Bay, Cornwall, Greenstone and Kapuskasing.

Today marks National Lifejacket Day and as the long weekend approaches, we want to ensure that Canadians are aware of the importance of lifejackets while engaging in water-related activities.

Earlier this week, Buckles, the Canadian Red Cross Swimming and Water Safety mascot, made an appearance on Parliament Hill.

With the Ebola virus affecting communities in Guinea since February, response activities ramped up in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia with Haiti now sharing expertise in beneficiary communications to help deal with the haemorrhagic fever outbreak.

Last week was Emergency Preparedness Week (May 4 – 10) and recent severe weather in the United States is a good example of disasters happening in an instant.

So now you’re prepared and have your emergency kit packed and stored somewhere easily accessible in times of disaster, but should that happen, what do you have in your kit to eat?

In preparing for an emergency, the Canadian Red Cross has a lot of information on how to plan for times that take us by surprise at www.redcross.ca/ready. Every household should have an emergency preparedness kit to help you get through the first 72 hours after a disaster strikes.