Story by Pat Kondas. Photos Credit: American Red Cross
Hurricane Dorian One Month Update
As of October 1, 2019, more than 3,100 Red Cross responders from all over the country had joined with our partners to support more than 38,300 overnight stays in Red Cross and community shelters and help serve over 189,700 meals and snacks, while also distributing more than 20,800 critical relief items like comfort kits and cleanup supplies. In addition, our volunteer mental health and health services professionals made more than 12,200 contacts to provide comfort and individual care for people affected by Hurricane Dorian—including those with special needs and functional disabilities. In Florida, the American Red Cross also worked in close coordination with partners at Palm Beach County Emergency Management to provide shelter in West Palm Beach, Florida, for evacuees arriving from the Bahamas. In addition to offering safe haven as evacuees planned their next steps, the Red Cross delivered food, water, hygiene items, health services, and emotional support. Volunteers also helped reconnect families and provided referrals to those in need with the generous support available through community resources.
Wyoming Red Cross disaster responders answer the call
When disaster strikes – anywhere – Wyoming volunteers are ready to respond. During recent Hurricane Dorian, several Red Cross of Wyoming volunteers deployed to South Carolina, including Gehrig Haberstock, Disaster Program Manager from Casper, and Monica Cook, a volunteer from Evansville.
ERVs Ready to Roll 
ERVs poised for action 
ERVs staging in Alabama 
Shelter Pilot Team in Florida
Gehrig Haberstock, originally from Waynesville, Missouri, has been with Red Cross for four years as both a volunteer and employee. On August 31, he deployed to Florida as part of a team of seven to test and implement a pilot program to better understand the needs of shelter residents and to take action sooner to overcome the barriers for the recovery of those impacted. That task was put on hold as the team was moved to South Carolina to support shelter operations, then moved to North Carolina to re-instate the pilot program. All this within a span of ten days.
The move to South Carolina was quite an experience, Haberstock said. “We had to use alternative routes to get into Charleston because I-26 was set-up as a contraflow.” South Carolina saw about 2,000 people seeking refuge in the evacuation centers.
Haberstock said he was most impressed with “(t)he flexibility and ingenuity of the team of seven to do what was needed, when it was needed, to ensure our clients and our workforce in the field were appropriately supported to do the tasks they were being asked to do.”
Monica Cook, originally from Seattle, has been with the Red Cross for about four and a half years. She first became a Red Cross volunteer because she was looking for a volunteer group that was also involved with amateur radios. From working with radios, she became involved with Disaster Cycle Services after moving to Wyoming. She deployed to Hurricane Dorian to be a Feeding Service Associate with the capabilities to drive the Emergency Response Vehicle to different sites, driving an ERV from the Colorado Springs, Colorado Chapter to the staging area in Montgomery, Alabama. Eighteen hours later, she was sent on to Columbia, South Carolina. After waiting out the storm in Columbia, they waited to see where the ERVs would be needed in other areas of South Carolina.
This was Cook’s first national deployment and she said not quite knowing the rules of the road was a difficult part of the deployment. She said, “The one thing I learned is that you have to be flexible and to go with the flow.”
No matter where disaster strikes, Wyoming volunteers are ready to deploy, doing whatever needs to be done. Haberstock and Cook are but two of the many Wyoming volunteers who have answered the call.