Red Cross volunteer helps in disaster

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Following the devastation left behind in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, thousands of volunteers poured into storm-stricken areas on the East Coast to help provide meals, shelter, debris removal and other assistance to victims.

Among those heading to the area was Van Wert resident Rodney Knauss, a Disaster Services volunteer for the Van Wert County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Local Disaster Services Chairman Mark Klausing said that, unlike most disasters, the Red Cross had plenty of advance notice that Hurricane Sandy was going to be a disaster of major proportions.

“Rick McCoy actually called me a week in advance to let me know that this was a possibility that we could get pretty hard,” Klausing said, noting that, because of the possibility of the storm affecting Van Wert County, he immediately mobilized his Disaster Services team and made sure his team members were available in case something happened.

After Sandy hit, it was apparent that a nationwide volunteer effort would be needed to provide assistance to the millions of people affected by the superstorm.

The Red Cross was one of the agencies that responded, and have sent 9,900 volunteers to date into the area to provide various forms of assistance to storm victims. That assistance includes opening 368 shelters for those dispossessed from their residences by the storm (approximately 140,000 people used the shelters), serving an estimated 1.4 million meals, delivering 1.4 items to people who could not leave their residences because of storm-related debris, deploying 300 feeding trucks, and providing 75,000 health service visits to those in distress because of the superstorm.

Klausing said the Red Cross estimates its storm-related costs, to date, at $50 million, with that number likely to approach $100 million after all costs are tallied.

“It is still ongoing,” the local Disaster Services chair said, adding that Knauss was sent to help out with assistance efforts shortly after the storm subsided.

Knauss, 24, whose “day job” is helping Klausing maintain the local Towne Center retail shopping center on Van Wert’s north side, said he drove to Lima and went from there with a group of area volunteers to New Jersey. The group was then sent to the Princeton, N.J., area and was stationed in Long Branch, N.J., to ramp up efforts to provide food and water to storm victims. The extent of storm damage was a surprise, Knauss said.

“I saw a lot of devastation, more than what I was expecting,” the local Red Cross volunteer reported during a recent news conference held at the Van Wert Red Cross office. In fact, Knauss, who spent two weeks on the scene, arrived at 5 in the morning and stayed at a hotel along with more than 100 other Red Cross volunteers. The local Red Cross volunteer said he and the other volunteers endured the same conditions as storm victims, adding that the hotel where they stayed had no power early on.

“For the next three days we went with no power, cold showers, like everybody else,” Knauss said.

That didn’t stop Knauss, who has been volunteering during local disasters for approximately 1½ years.

“I love helping people and I wanted to be out and help others in these communities,” he noted, explaining that his duties included providing food to three nursing homes in the area.

Knauss said that, even in Princeton, which is about 1½ hours from the Atlantic Ocean, the devastation was amazing, with downed trees and power lines all around, as well as homes and business destroyed.

The local Red Cross volunteer said that, while damage was extensive in Van Wert County from the derecho windstorm that hit the area in June, it paled beside the devastation he saw in New Jersey from Hurricane Sandy.

“It was a lot worse,” Knauss said of the damage, but added that, even though it was his first deployment to a disaster area out of the county, he would definitely do it again. He also said it was a learning experience for him on what needs to be done in the face of a major disaster.

“(I received) a lot of experience helping people,” Knauss said, adding that, while conditions for volunteers weren’t all that great, they were better than what most of the storm victims were experiencing.

He added that, while storm victims were understandably upset right off — with many losing homes and many of their possessions — most were also very appreciative when volunteers began providing meals and other assistance. Knauss said that, far from deterring him, seeing the suffering of Hurricane Sandy’s victims makes him eager to help out again during future disasters.

Meanwhile, Klausing said local residents need to remember that victims of Hurricane Sandy could be suffering for months, or even a year from now, because of the effects of the storm.

“These people will not have a custom Thanksgiving or an ordinary Christmas,” Klausing said, adding that many people remain in shelters weeks after the storm because their homes are gone or extensively damaged. “Long term, it’s a good possibility they won’t have a Thanksgiving or Christmas next year.”

Klausing said that, even locally, damage still remains from June’s derecho windstorm, and added that, because of the long wait in getting someone out to repair his own roof, which was damaged by the storm, he is currently doing repairs himself.

In the meantime, local Red Cross Chapter Executive Director Edie Laukhuf noted that any assistance local residents can provide to storm victims would be greatly appreciated, adding that more than 5,000 Red Cross workers, as well as volunteers from other non-profit agencies, remain on the East Coast to provide assistance to storm victims.

Those who want to make a donation to the Red Cross storm relief efforts can either do so on the Red Cross website at www.redcross.org by calling 800.733.2767 or texting the word “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Those wanting to donate can also use the “donate” feature on free mobile Red Cross apps to support the relief efforts, while contributions can also be mailed to local Red Cross chapters or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.