Step1
Be prepared personally.
Always be sure that you and your family are safe and secure first.
Have a Basic Emergency Safety Kit prepared for yourself and for your family. You can buy such kits over the internet, or prepare your own.
The Department of Homeland Security has these suggestions for your kit.
http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html
Step2
Before the disaster, take CRP and First Aid training.
Sources for this training are plentiful. Check with the American Red Cross, your park district, hospitals, or your fire department.
Step3
The American Red Cross initially provides water, food, shelter, and other immediate necessities to disaster victims. They are
They normally turn outside untrained volunteers away at the time of a disaster. Therefore, the best way to volunteer for the Red Cross is to sign up prior to a disaster, get training (theirs is excellent and thorough), and be willing to be deployed at the time of an emergency.
They are not government run, and their funding is totally by donation.
Therefore, before the disaster, get disaster service training! Joining the American Red Cross Disaster Services team prepares you in many ways, and makes you instantly desirable as a volunteer with other service providers as well.
They will make use of your specific trades and gifts to optimize the way you can help. You will be able to respond to many local disasters which will give you much needed experience as well.
If you want to help other than by direct volunteering, the American Red Cross takes cash donations. They do not accept food or clothing donations because the cost of receiving, sorting, and transporting these goods can be well in excess of what can be purchased closer. Also, prior to the disaster, it is not always evident what goods will be required for the region, thus necessitating large inventory storage costs.
Step4
If the disaster is local to you, secure your family and insure your own safety.
Take whatever safety equipment that is available with you including tools, gloves, etc.
Priorities are:
Personal safety
Immediate medical attention to anyone requiring it
Any physical steps that can be taken to lessen impact of the disaster. (i.e. flood control - utilization of sand bags, etc)
Drinking Water
Shelter
Food
Property security
Search and recovery
Step5
Deployment to a Disaster Area:
Phone First! If you are not local to the disaster (and this is the intent of this article)and you want to be on site, find a place to help BEFORE leaving for the area.
If you are an American Red Cross volunteer, you know you need to contact your center and express your availability. They will then deploy you where help is most needed.
As a private citizen wanting to help, call local authorities. Try the mayor's office before the police or fire department. They need their lines for emergency response.
Call United Way.
Call the Salvation Army.
Call the local union.
Call local churches.
Call the local lodges.
These are the groups that tend to rally their members immediately, and will be happy to have additional help.
Step6
What to Bring if you deploy to the area:
Be self sufficient. Bring your own drinking water and your own food. Enough for your entire stay. Bring your own clean clothing, tent, generator, fuel, gloves, boots, tools, and whatever else makes sense.
Remember the area most likely will not have power, which also means gas stations may not be able to operate.
Bring paper plates and plastic utensils and lots of garbage bags. Bring your own bedding.
Bring batteries, a radio, a first aid kit, and mosquito spray. Bring your cell phone and a means to charge it, but understand it may not work. Bring a solar charger if possible.
Bring cash. You may not be able to use a credit card.
Bring a buddy.
Expect the harshest of conditions, and be pleased whenever they are not as harsh as you thought.
Step7
CASH
Cash is usually the best way to help because it can help obtain what is needed most and is extremely flexible. Also, the agency that you donate to most likely has the experience of what to send, how to get it there, and how to get it to the area where it is most needed.
For example: If the water supply is bad, bottled water will be very critical. We gathered pallets of bottled water and had it shipped to Katrina victims. But by the time it arrived, thousands of other companies and individuals had done the same thing, the water supply had been secured, and there was an abundance of bottled water at the site, requiring a storage site (not easy to find) and resources to handle it.
Step8
Give blood.
In many disasters hospitals are affected by both shortage of supply because of many injured people and by transportation issues. Particularly if you are close, blood deliveries will be made a priority. Even if you are far away, blood supplies that had been available in your area may have been depleted by earlier shipments to the disaster area.
Step9
First Response Things to Send:
Amazingly, the first things that people want to send are food, clothes, toys and furniture. People who have had their homes destroyed have no place for furniture, clothes, or toys at first. They WILL need food. But they may not have a can opener for the canned goods sent (so send one for each 20 cans of food.)
Other things they will need right away:
Bottled Water
NEW clean underwear.
Toilet Paper
Canned Goods (with pull type lids)
Can Openers (not electric)
Diapers
Feminine Products
Paper plates
Plastic utensils
Baby Food
Blankets
Clean bedding, marked as to size
Socks
Plastic garbage bags (can serve as luggage, rain coat, or help for clean up.)
Hand Sanitizer
Kleenex
Cleaning products
Buckets
Toothbrushes and Toothpaste
(New) combs
GLOVES
Shovels
Radios (battery operated or hand crank)
Batteries
Of any clothes, large sized sweat suits and children's T-shirts and pants are most needed.
Step10
Semi-Drivers
If you have a CDL and can volunteer to drive even one load of goods to the area, your services will always be needed. The cost of delivering goods is often quite high particularly with the higher fuel costs. If you are willing to donate the use of your truck and or even your driving services for even one run, most places that have collected items will be willing to pay for your fuel.
The first delivery needed is usually a tanker of clean water.
Delivery of goods will continue usually for months.
Post through craigslist.com
Post through FEMA's website
Contact your local newspaper. They will be happy to publish your offer.
Step11
Send these items a little later for rebuilding purposes.
After the initial call for aid, any building supplies are in high demand.
Hand Tools
Nails
Lumber
Wall Board
Tile
Hammer
Generators
Fuel Cards
Phone Cards
Nuts and bolts
Screws
Still keep sending gloves and cleaning supplies
Step12
Finally, Things to Send When it is Time to Re-settle
Good used furniture.
Building supplies still needed. Perhaps your local building supply company will give a discount if you gather funds for a large buy.
Good used clothing. Thing of the utility. Simple clothing is best. Do not send your old prom dress or your child's tutu from a dance recital. Send basic shirts, pants, jackets, new socks and new underwear.
Step13
Jobs
If you have a job to offer, even if temporary, post it in their local papers or on CraigsList. Consider travelling expenses.
Katrina Clouds Looming Overhead
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