January 2014 (Page 24)

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.

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

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

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.