Disaster Response (Page 48)

Debbie Smith, Donna Doak and Sharon McDougall are Red Cross disaster response volunteers from Brockville who have been volunteering their time to help those who have been evacuated from their homes in northern Ontario due to flooding.

When 17-year-old Janie Inishinapay was forced to evacuate from her northern Ontario home in Kashechewan earlier this week because of extensive flooding, her first priority was ensuring the safety of her infant son, Rysen, who has cerebral palsy.

Officials are calling it the worst flooding to affect Serbia and Bosnia in more than a century. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as homes, roads, and railways have been submerged and a state of emergency has been declared.

More than 200 Red Crossers continue their efforts to provide support to approximately 2,500 people forced to evacuate their homes in the First Nation communities of Kashechewan and Attawapiskat because of spring flooding.
 

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.

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.

About 30 Canadian Red Cross Disaster Management volunteers and staff helped kick off Emergency Preparedness Week, May 4-10, at Toronto City Hall this week. Red Crossers were on hand to teach Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly how to set up cots for a shelter and share information to help Torontonians be ready for disasters.