Written by Pat Kondas, American Red Cross Public Affairs
The public view of the American Red Cross is of volunteers arriving to provide immediate assistance in the wake of a house fire, or setting up a shelter for those displaced by a disaster – the kind of activities that show up in the media. But a major function of the Red Cross takes place out of the spotlight.
Before an operation can move from response to recovery, including setting up Disaster Assistance Centers and establishing client case files, the extent of the damage must be determined. This task falls to the Damage Assessment (DA) people – those intrepid workers who must work quickly to document the damage and destruction of all the homes involved so that assistance can be delivered to those affected.
Volunteer Lee Lampert understands the importance of doing Damage Assessment. He’s been doing it for about twenty-five years. A volunteer with Mile High Chapter in Denver for forty-four years, Lee says he has “done it all” – sheltering, Disaster Action Team captain and teaching preparedness classes. But he found his niche in Damage Assessment. He says he “really liked DAT stuff at the time, being able to put these people up and hook them up with a caseworker to take care of them.” And he says, “What prides me the most is the a.m. I can make a call and five minutes later I get a call back [for the client].”
But as time went on, Lee says, “I evolved. I like the personal interaction, but I like the idea of going out and assessing the damage because, before the Service Center can open with Red Cross, they need to have a least 85 percent DA inputted into the system.” He says, “It’s kind of the check and balance” that allows caseworkers to confirm the damage to a home so they can open a case for the client. Lee said he likes doing field work because, “I don’t like being tied into the center – I like being able to be part of a team. It’s definitely a team effort. We’re just one piece of it.”
In his forty-four years with the Red Cross, Lee has watched the changes the organization has gone through. A major change has been the use of technology in DA, going from paper and pencil and filling out street sheets, to using cell phones and tablets to enter data in real-time, so that people working virtually anywhere in the country can update the information. However, he acknowledges that when the system goes down, it’s nice to have the street sheets as backup.
Lee started with the Red Cross just out of high school as a life guard, and he continued volunteering off and on, even while teaching in Denver public schools for more than thirty-five years. When he retired, he got a second degree in Emergency Management and he says, “That’s where my passion has been all these years.” He says, “I kinda grew up in the Red Cross and I’ve done it all.”
The Red Cross thanks you, Lee, for doing it all and hopes you continue to do so for many more years.