By Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross volunteer
Every disaster seems to generate an avalanche of goods donations from the public, thanks to heart-wrenching appeals and visuals of people fleeing their homes with next to nothing. But can there be too much of a good thing? Read more
By Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross Volunteer
On the menu for lunch on Monday, August 6th for Red Cross shelters serving the evacuees of the Mendocino Complex Fire: 1,000 servings of non-spicy vegetable Thai curry and mixed green salad – the first of many meals coming their way from the World Central Kitchen, launched by famed Chef José Andrés after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Read more
My name is Jeff Baumgartner, and I am the Executive Director of the American Red Cross of the California Northwest Chapter, which serves the one million residents of Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties.
Lake County has been struck by four years of unprecedented wildfires. Each time tragedy has struck, this community responded heroically. Your Red Cross team, of mostly volunteers, has been honored to be here to serve alongside this community during each one of these emergencies. Representing your local Red Cross team, I want you to know that we try to learn from each response to do better in the future. Since 2015 we have steadily made changes to our policies and readiness to better serve the community, but we have more work to do. I am so thankful for the community leaders and partners who have already reached out to help make those changes together. Read more
By Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross volunteer
The Red Cross shelters at Middletown High and Middle Schools doesn’t need to broadcast popular cartoons or the latest superhero films, not with six-year-old Ben Hodgen Jr. in the house. Read more
by Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross volunteer
Some 13 pallets of canned water donated by Anheuser-Busch to the Red Cross in its response to the Mendocino Complex wildfires arrived in Middletown on Monday.
Anheuser-Busch sent two truckloads with more than 100,000 cans of clean, safe emergency drinking water to help communities hit by devastating wildfires in California. The water, from the Cartersville Brewery in Georgia, was sent to Ukiah and Redding at the request of the American Red Cross. The water was distributed to the American Red Cross with the help of Eagle Distributing Co. in Ukiah and Foothill Distributing Co. in Redding. Read more
By Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross volunteer
When orders came to evacuate Lucerne, a community of 3,000 on the southeastern edges of Clear Lake, Robert Peterson and his two young daughters were ready to skedaddle.
“We had the car packed and all the kids’ stuff loaded,” he said Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after he and his family fled the town he’s called home for eight years. A resident for a dozen years in this county where some say wildfires “are the new normal,” Peterson said the urgent departure marked his first-ever evacuation. Read more
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