By Rick Padden, American Red Cross Public Affairs
Name: Carol Miller
GAP: Sheltering, Disaster Assessment, Distribution of Emergency Supplies & Disability Integration (partial)
Length of service: 1 year 8 months
Deployments: 3
It took an earthquake to get Red Cross volunteer Carol Miller to move. A native of Los Angeles, she moved to Colorado in 1994 after losing her condo in the Northridge, CA earthquake. It was an eventful year for her, as her father took ill with pancreatic cancer that same year. “The earth moved; my dad moved on; and I didn’t have a home, so I moved to Colorado,” she said.
She joined the Red Cross in January of 2019, but is already on her third deployment, all in the past month. Her first trip took her from Windsor to Windsor.
Hurricane Isaias had spawned an EF3 tornado on Aug. 4th of this year, obliterating a mobile home park, killing two and injuring 14. Miller left her Windsor, CO home and flew to Windsor, NC.
It was a short deployment – in on a Sunday and out on Thursday – but Miller got to experience a congregate shelter, sleeping in a women’s locker room at a high school.
“It was challenging though,” she said. “There was a lot of staff and not a lot of residents. There were people from five states, outsiders, along with the local teams helping, and just knowing who was taking the lead was difficult. But we were all there to serve the clients, and that North Carolina experience was unbelievable. I had the opportunity to go around and shadow for DA (damage assessment) too, and the people I interfaced with were lovely and so appreciative. They couldn’t be more thankful for all we were doing. Just wearing that Red Cross attire and seeing how people react to it just makes it all worthwhile.”
Miller deployed locally for the Lewstone fire, which burned 165 acres north of Rist Canyon west of Fort Collins in August. “It wasn’t a true DR,” she said. “It sort of piggy-backed on the other fires. It was a non-congregate shelter at Embassy Suites in Loveland, and we were on site for incoming residents 24/7, doing 12-hour shifts.”
Then she was on her way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Hurricane Laura deployment the day after this interview. “I’m super excited about this deployment,” she said. “I want to be out in the field, interacting with people – and on that one I’ll be doing damage assessment.
“I think the favorite aspect of my training is going to be this deployment. Part of being a physical therapist is interacting with people. I feel like that’s where I can make the most difference – in doing that damage assessment, and helping people, getting them to know that there is someone out there evaluating and making sure that their needs are met.”
Miller earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology from UCLA, a masters degree in physical therapy from USC, and worked 31 years as a physical therapist before retiring last year. At one point she even took a hiatus and worked as a project manager for an IT company. Her most recent work was as a physical therapy manager for CSU’s Health Network in Fort Collins. Her husband, Doug, worked 35 years as a police officer in Steamboat Springs, Lakewood and finally in Fort Collins, but is now retired and the couple has done a lot of traveling “Thank God he’s out,” Miller said. They’ve since been to Ireland and Scotland, and go to San Diego quite a bit, which is a home away from home for them.
Miller is one of those people always on the run – literally. She ran her first marathon at age 50 in Colorado (placing first), and qualified for the 2013 Boston Marathon – yes, the fateful one. “I was finished and walking home when the first bomb went off,” she said. “We all have a time stamp, you know? Mine just wasn’t up yet.”
She’s accepted the challenge of the Abbott Marathon Majors, a series of six of the largest marathons in the world. She’s already run in New York, Chicago and Boston, and will eventually do Tokyo, London and Berlin. “I was going to run in Berlin this year,” she said, “but it got cancelled, like all marathons.”
Her husband is going through some cancer treatment, and Miller said, “You know, you think, I want to do all the things I can do, because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring.
“I’ve always wanted to do this (the Red Cross),” she said. “I’ve always been interested. And who can criticize the Red Cross? We’re all here for the same reason, and I’ve always wanted to do something kind of outside of my hands-on (physical therapy) stuff. At first, not much was happening, and I was wondering if anything ever would. But with the Red Cross, when it happens, it happens. Also, I’ve always been a manager; let me be the worker bee now.”