Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 13, 1995 TAG: 9501130108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tom Brown, chapter manager, said Thursday that the volunteers will fly to San Francisco, then report to the Red Cross disaster relief headquarters in Santa Rosa for three-week assignments. Three volunteers left Thursday, two will leave today and one on Saturday.
Their assignments will vary from handling shelter and food operations to maintaining records and reports - services that have been called on more frequently in recent years, with the number and magnitude of natural disasters.
``I've been with this organization 20 years, and I don't think I can remember a two- to three-year period as busy,'' Brown said. ``It's been one large disaster after another.''
John Ballou of Roanoke County was getting ready Thursday for his third disaster-relief stint in 12 months.
He worked the California earthquake last January and the Georgia floods in July.
``I've been a volunteer since 1991,'' Ballou said. ``I started out at Hurricane Andrew and have been going ever since. It's been one after another.''
Paul Moore of Roanoke, a volunteer since the mid-1970s, was called Tuesday and asked if he could leave Thursday. He needed time, he said, to arrange to take off from his cashier's job at a fast-food restaurant and could not leave until Saturday.
``When they called, I didn't expect it to be quite this quick,'' Moore said. ``The last [disaster relief] job I went to in Houston, Texas, I had two hours' notice before going.
``But that's part of disaster. You never know when it's going to strike. It's a service we need to provide. We've got to be there.''
Hundreds of Red Cross disaster-relief workers from across the country are helping victims of the California flooding. The Red Cross has opened 68 shelters in the state, housing more than 2,000 families who have been evacuated from their homes.
More flooding is expected as another weather front approaches the West Coast this weekend.
by CNB