Written by Catherine Barde Leventhal, American Red Cross Volunteer
As I write my reflections on the tenth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, I am listening to reporting of Hurricane Ian and know the American Red Cross is prepared to meet the needs of families affected by this based on my personal experiences. Like Superstorm Sandy, hundreds of volunteers including myself were prepositioned before it made landfall. My primary assignment as a national spokesperson to share the stories of what Red Cross was doing and where people could get help.
Because of my unique assignment I had the opportunity to see a large portion of Red Cross activities across the 3 states I was assigned. I knew how much we do as volunteers to prepare for disasters prior to the landfall of a hurricane and to see first-hand the warehouses that were stocked with water, food, shelter items and cleanup kits along with the hundreds of volunteers (including myself) who were predeployed, was awe-inspiring. Evacuation shelters were opened in advance of Superstorm Sandy and to see the partnerships with local animal welfare groups to house “all” the family members including the furry ones and there were shelters with equipment and beds for those with special needs in partnership with the Medical Reserve Corp teams across the east coast makes you keenly aware of the preparation and training in advance that has gone in to such an effort to be able to respond. On October 30th, 2012, over 11,000 people were staying in 258 shelters across 16 states.
As soon as Superstorm Sandy passed over our position in Atlantic City, NJ, my partner Todd James of Ohio and I headed the areas where the media was staged. We conducted our interviews informing the public where they could find much needed help and met with locals who were inspecting the damage to the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk.
I will never forget meeting John Paxton, a cryptographer and civil servant since the 1950s, he had donated blood to the Red Cross every chance he gets since 1962. At that time, had given 34 gallons and was to make another donation the following day but during disasters the nation’s blood supply is also affected with closures and cancellations of blood and platelet donations. All those years he was there for American Red Cross and the untold many he has helped, and, on that day, we could be there for him.
Presidential Visit in Brigantine, New Jersey
On November 1st, Todd James and I headed to Brigantine, New Jersey where government officials and responding agencies were surveying the damage of this community and visiting a Red Cross shelter. These site tours are incredibly important for public officials to see how their constituents are affected and being helped and what resources will be needed for the community recover.
After speaking with residents and hearing their stories, President Obama alongside Governor Chris Christie, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, and other officials, to reassure those affected by the storm of recovery, and pledge the full support of the federal government every step of the way. He reminded the American people of our remarkable ability to come together as a country when we go through tough times, and the importance of never leaving anybody behind: “And when you see folks like that respond with strength and resilience, when you see neighbors helping neighbors, then you’re reminded about what America is all about. We go through tough times, but we bounce back. And the reason we bounce back is because we look out for one another, and we don’t leave anybody behind. And so my commitment to the people on this block, the people in this community, and the people of this state is that that same spirit will carry over all the way through until our work is done.”
American Red Cross CEO /President along with the Secretary of Homeland Security Press Conference, Staten Island, NY
Over the next few days, I was assigned a new partner and Colorado colleague, Patricia Billinger to work the Staten Island, NY public affairs response. She and I had worked together all summer long on the Colorado Wildfires of 2012, and we connected at Miller Field located in the New Dorp section of Staten Island, NY. This area was being used as a “fixed recovery site” for all services available to families affected by Sandy as many of the roads in the community were still unpassable. Families could find Red Cross and FEMA, for their basic needs such as food, water, blankets, batteries, hot showers, comfort items, charging stations and more. On November 2, 2012, a national press conference was held there while families collected necessities. Gail McGovern, CEO and President of American Red Cross and Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security reassured the community and the United States that we’d be there for the recovery.
Kitchen 1 on Veterans Road, Staten Island, New York serving the Oakwood and New Dorp Beach area.
Over the next two weeks, my partner Patricia Billinger and I worked out of what is called a Kitchen site serving Staten Island, New York. Ten thousand meals a day are prepared by a partner agency, (Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief) loaded into Red Cross Emergency Response vehicles and delivered twice a day into communities. What I didn’t realize is that the crew visits the same neighborhood for brunch and dinner, day after day. North Carolina volunteers, Joe Hawkins and David Buxton left their families for two weeks to volunteer. We would see the same families every day and if they had a special request such a Kosher or vegan meal or diapers Joe and David would have it on the next meal delivery.
North Carolina volunteers, Joe Hawkins and David Buxton along with Catherine Barde Leventhal load up the vehicles and serve meals in the communities of Staten Island. Nov 3-4, 2012 Photo credit: Catherine Barde Leventhal and Patricia Billinger.
I will never forget meeting Jane DiSalvo, a resident in the New Dorp area of Staten Island.
I offered a hug and comfort to Jane DiSalvo, who tried to hold back tears as she accepted a hot meal from the mobile feeding vehicle that drove into her neighborhood on Nov. 3, 2012. “I’m sorry I’m crying, I’m just so grateful. I survived 9/11, I survived this, I’m so grateful to be alive,” Jane said. “I didn’t know if we were going to eat today, I have no car, I have no gas, I have no nothing.” We saw her daily for the next week and made sure all of her basic needs were taken care of.
Remarkably, while we canvased the neighborhoods providing hot meals and basic comfort items, two other groups of Red Cross volunteers; “Disaster Mental Health” and “Safe and Well” teams were also visiting the same families. Disasters are upsetting experiences for everyone involved. Children, senior citizens, people with disabilities and people for whom English is not their first language are especially at risk and need extra care and help. throughout the recovery process and trained Mental Health volunteers can help. The “Safe and Well” teams were going home to home making sure everyone was accounted for and that everyone had access to a phone or computer to connect with loved ones.
Patricia Billinger hands out hot meals to the Staten Island community still without power. Photo credit: Catherine Barde Leventhal
Working with national media outlets
Patricia Billinger and I continued to work with various news outlets, including Chris Cuomo and Diane Sawyer of ABC World News, several NBC news teams, Geraldo Rivera of Fox News and more. An important part of working with the media is not only informing families where to find the services Red Cross has available, but it is also important for those around the nation to see how their generous donations are helping others in such a great time of need.
Photo credit: Red Cross workers, Catherine Barde Leventhal and Patricia Billinger, Superstorm Sandy, Staten Island, NY 2012 Both pictured with Chris Cuomo, ABC and Geraldo Rivera, FOX News
Eli Manning, New York Giants Quarterback and Red Cross Ambassador spends the day volunteering
Red Cross ambassador and New York Giants Quarterback, Eli Manning, came to the Kitchen site to help the volunteers load up the Emergency Response Vehicles. He worked side by side with the Red Crossers and then rode out to the neighborhood where he served hot meals and snacks to families. He was so incredibly gracious to all, signing everything presented, taking photos all the while handing out the lunches for the entire community. The two members of the NFL staff chatted with the neighborhood kids and handed out $50 gift cards saying, “compliments of Eli.” One gentleman told me this was the worst time of his life, but the very best day of his life.
Red Cross worker Catherine Barde explains to Red Cross ambassador Eli Manning how the Red Cross and Southern Baptist Convention work together to cook and deliver thousands of meals per day – Nov. 6, 2012, when Manning took his day off to volunteer on Staten Island loading supplies and delivering meals to residents affected by Superstorm Sandy. Photo Credit: Patricia Billinger
“Bulk distribution” of blankets, clean up items and food, Coney Island, Queens and the Rockaways
The second week of November 2012, we visited other areas including Coney Island and the Rockaways. Both areas were still without utilities and roads were still being cleared. Kitchen sites were preparing thousands of meals and volunteers were driving the communities serving them or they would set up in a staging area along side with “Bulk distribution” sites. Bulk items would include blankets, buckets with clean up items, disinfectant, plastic bags, gloves plus shovels and mops. All of these items are made possible by the generosity of donors.
Spirit of America, Kitchen 3 at Ft. Tilton, Queens, New York serving the Rockaways, Breezy Point and Coney Island area Week 3
At this time, most of the Red Cross fleet around the nation had been deployed along with over 5000 volunteers who left their families to help. My partner, Patricia Billinger and I visited another “Kitchen Site” this time at Ft. Tilden, Breezy Point District serving in the Rockaways and Coney Island area of New York. At this time, most of the Red Cross fleet around the nation had been deployed along with thousands of volunteers. At this location, they had 27 Emergency Response Vehicles, a command post and a self-contained cooking trailer called the ‘Spirit of America.”
“The Spirit of America.” It is a self-contained, 53-foot trailer designed to produce as many as 30,000 hot, nutritionally balanced “home style” meals daily from within heavily impacted disaster areas. Meals prepared in the mobile kitchen by our partners, the Southern Baptists of Kentucky, are then loaded on Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles and distributed to families throughout the area.
Red Cross volunteers Roy Powers and David Aguilar from Grand Rapids, Michigan are assisted by Rene McHale, a volunteer from the community to provide much needed items to the community of Staten Island, New York. Roy surprised me by stopping at a home knocking on a door and just checking on an elderly woman who lived by herself. She’d have trouble coming out, but he’d take hot meals to her door. It touched me how Red Crossers would come to know the families of one community all the while they left their families to serve. Photo credit: Catherine Barde Leventhal
Monitoring Coastal Change in the Face of Climate Change; The USGS Teams
As Hurricane Sandy moved northward along the U.S. Atlantic coast in October 2012, U.S. Geological Survey scientists worked to determine where and how the storm’s waves and surge might dramatically reshape the beaches and dunes that stand between the storm and coastal developments. As the USGS teams were collecting their data, my new volunteer partner, Jim Guidone of North Carolina, and I crossed paths with them. As we surveyed the damage of homes washed off their foundations, we discussed how the American Red Cross helps communities prepare in advance of hurricanes with safety tips, emergency notification apps and providing shelters when needed. Climate change is a humanitarian crisis. Every day, the American Red Cross sees the heartbreak of families and communities trying to cope with more intense storms, heavier rainfall, higher temperatures, stronger hurricanes, and more devastating wildfires. I have witnessed this in my own community in Colorado, most recently with the Marshall Fire, and on the many hurricane responses I have worked on over the last decade since Sandy.
After four weeks in the field, most of this area was still without power and the National Guard was assisting at major intersections, gas stations and major recovery sites. It was hard work for everyone. Volunteers from around the nation left our families to work in such challenging conditions with easily had 15-hour work days, I’m still in awe of the scope and scale of what the American Red Cross had accomplished after all these years.
Because of the many national disasters, I have volunteered on in the last twelve years, I have increased my financial support of Red Cross. I had always donated my time and supported blood drives but as a member of the American Red Cross Tiffany Circle I can help advance the humanitarian mission in a truly, meaningful way. Having seen first-hand how the donated dollars are used, I can say without any doubt I was willing to contribute my own.
The Tiffany Circle is a wonderful group of women from around the nation who may have different backgrounds but have the same goal. To learn more about the Red Cross mission and initiatives, make meaningful friendships all while raising over $146 million in the last 15 years! I have since hosted a Tiffany Circle event in my home in Colorado to educate and engage others in the mission and have also attended Tiffany Circle events in Washington D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland, the respective headquarters of the American Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross Societies.
I am continually proud of the time I have spent volunteering and working with the most dedicated people with the biggest hearts.