National Disaster Relief

While the frightening images of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes are shocking enough to grab daily headlines, other disasters, such as residential fires, often go unnoticed, even in our own neighborhoods.

This year, once again, residential fires constitute the most disaster response activity by the organization. The large disasters make headlines, but what you don’t hear about are the more than 70,000 disasters our local chapters across the country responded to every year - mostly single family fires. There is no such thing as a small disaster. A house fire is just as devastating for the family that experiences it as a tornado or a hurricane, and the local Red Cross chapters are there with comfort and care every eight minutes throughout this country. When you reach out to help victims of high visibility disasters, remember that your local Red Cross is there for disaster victims in your community every day.

When a disaster occurs, it calls upon volunteers that have been trained and are a part of the Disaster Services Human Resource network. These dedicated volunteers leave their homes with very short notice to ensure that the disaster-caused needs of the clients are met. They specialize in one of many areas of service, such as Disaster Mental Health, Disaster Health Services, Mass Care (feeding and sheltering), Family Services (working with the clients), Records and Reports or Disaster Computer Operations. The training received is the same across the country so that when workers from across the country come together, they have the same understanding of how the operation will be run.

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people.

Local Disaster Relief 

When disasters strike, the Lakeland Chapter is always there to provide vital assistance to area families in need. While the majority of our disaster responses are to house and apartment fires, we also assist those affected by tornadoes, wind storms, floods, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions, and other natural and man-made disasters.

Red Cross disaster relief focuses on enabling individuals and families affected by disaster to independently resume their normal daily activities by meeting their emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, clothing, food, and health and mental health services to address basic human needs.

The Red Cross also feeds emergency workers, handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area, provides blood and blood products to disaster victims, and helps those affected by disaster to access other available resources.

All Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people.