Emergencies don’t wait for the perfect moment.
They can happen without warning, in the middle of an ordinary day, at home, surrounded by family.
But what happens next often depends on one thing: whether someone nearby knows what to do.
For Edward Kuan, that moment came unexpectedly. At just 15 years old, his actions made the difference between life and death.
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Being called to assist those whose lives have been upended by a natural disaster is not only an opportunity to provide aid and service. A deployment is also a unique opportunity for cultural exchange, and Laura Hovden’s deployment to Alaska in the wake of Typhoon Halong in October 2025 was a testament to that.
Laura first got involved in local disaster management volunteer opportunities with the American Red Cross in 2014. Once her children left home for college, she left her own backyard to deploy to natural disasters across the country. She focused on organizing shelters during her initial deployments, but she soon secured more responsibilities as part of the Mass Care team that manages relief operations for larger natural disasters.
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“You’re on the water. You’ve got wildlife out your window. You’ve got the sun playing off the water.”
That’s how Flo Hoylman describes living aboard a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., just north of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. But Flo, who serves on the board of the Sausalito Floating Homes Association, knows she and her neighbors on the water are just as susceptible to fires as any other Californians.
“We still burn. And if there was a fire, like there was in Santa Rosa, the embers would come down on us, too.”
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Special guests recently got a rare, behind‑the‑scenes look at the American Red Cross blood processing center in San Leandro, Calif., and the visit came with some powerful reminders of why blood donation matters.
“As I am walking in today… you might not have known I have sickle cell disease,” guest speaker and sickle cell advocate Nivia Charles said as she shared her personal story. While her condition isn’t always visible, it’s far from rare: sickle cell disease is the most common genetic blood disorder in the U.S.
Read moreWhen torrential rain opened over California in the winter of 2023, few could have imagined the devastation that would follow. Fueled by rare atmospheric rivers, communities were flooded with destruction like they had never seen before. Among them was Pajaro, a small Monterey County town, where homes and livelihoods were destroyed.
While this disaster did leave behind broken levees, it also ignited a new vision for preparedness, particularly in vulnerable communities where disasters repeatedly hit the hardest.
That realization quickly became the impetus to launch the 18th Red Cross Community Adaptation Program (CAP) across the country out of Monterey County. This is an innovative Red Cross initiative designed to strengthen local partner networks in disaster-prone areas, ensuring families have the tools and support they need before the next emergency strikes.
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After a massive typhoon hit Guam in 2023, people on the islands were struggling to feed their families. While the American Red Cross had set up a shelter to house people whose homes had been damaged, there were many people in the community who were not staying at the shelter but still needed food and water. Red Cross leaders wondered, how can we get food to the local community, when there are no street signs for navigating and we don’t have a fleet of vehicles here? Bus drivers were the answer! So, the Red Cross worked with the school district in Guam to distribute meals on school buses because the drivers knew the streets well and had transportation available already.
After some time, Red Cross leadership was considering ending the feeding program in the community, but the volunteers in the field were concerned. They drove around to all the local bodegas and there was “nothing there” on the shelves, says Briana Taylor, Red Cross volunteer. “We went back and said, ‘You can’t stop feeding until we have food in the markets.’ People wouldn’t have had any resources to provide food for their families.”
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