Red Cross: Midwest hit by ‘mini Katrinas’
by Jake Krob · June 25, 2008

In the afternoon, she surveyed damage with the President of the United States.

In the morning, she sat among dozens of other volunteers in a dorm lounge on the Cornell College campus.

Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, the chair of the board of the American Red Cross, spent Wednesday night, June 18, in a dorm room at Cornell, while surveying damage here for the organization. She’s held the chair’s position since being appointed to the position by President Bush in June 2004. With her was Mary S. Elcano, then acting president and CEO of the Red Cross, and Leslie Schaffer, executive director of the Red Cross’s Central Iowa Chapter. The Red Cross’s new president, former AT&T and Fidelity Investments executive Gail McGovern, began her duties Monday.

Elcano said last week that McGovern had been to Iowa to assess damages twice, and had been in “non-stop” contact with Red Cross staff and volunteers to understand the situation in Eastern Iowa, and elsewhere in the state.

Traveling in the Cedar Rapids area, McElveen-Hunter said she and her team “quickly recognized the people of Iowa are very resilient – their hope is not gone.”

Elcano said the Red Cross also learned that Iowa’s flooding is much larger than it was in 1993. Couple Iowa’s disasters (including tornadoes) with others in the Midwest and the organization is offering assistance at numerous “mini Katrinas.”

Because of that, she said, the Red Cross is making a plea for donations. The organization’s disaster relief fund is “depleted.” The Red Cross must borrow to replenish it, as it did when a $20 million reserve was quickly used after Katrina, and “make an appeal out nationwide” for donations to pay off the debt.

Elcano said efforts by the Red Cross in 7-8 states affected by the recent flooding and storms is probably at a cost “north of $20 million.”

“We’re confident the American people will fund it,” she added.

In disasters such as the flooding here, McElveen-Hunter pointed out, the first need is financial. Donations of dollars, she said, “allow us to give specifically – to address the needs of individuals.”

Much of that is done through issuing Red Cross debit cards people can use.

Funds are also used to support volunteer efforts. Food preparation sites are set up around flooded areas, with the Southern Baptists capable of cooking 30,000 meals a day from each site. The Red Cross uses Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) loaded with insulated containers holding the food. Each ERV can serve 500 meals a day. There’s no discrimination regarding who’s helped; workers are welcome to eat, too. The Red Cross also has shelters, job centers for employment-related assistance, medical team members and disaster assessment experts.

McElveen-Hunter and her team put out a call for volunteers, pointing out that about 800 Iowans served the Red Cross at disasters such as Katrina and 911. They said as of last week volunteers from 42 states were in Iowa.

“This is really neighbors helping neighbors,” McElveen-Hunter said.

The help here from other states is a must.

Elcano pointed out that Iowa has been struck multiple times in recent weeks – tornadoes, direct flooding and more intense flooding with levy breaches.

“With Parkersburg, internally, we realized we could handle this,” Schaffer, of Des Moines, said. “Then it started raining. That’s when we knew we had to engage the national resources.”

Before leaving Mount Vernon to travel with President Bush, McElveen-Hunter said she’s been impressed with the efforts of the Red Cross and others while in Iowa.

She’s hopeful for a strong recovery.

While sleeping on the Cornell campus, she said she recognized “commerce is always moving forward” as trains regularly roared through town here, blowing their whistles.