The Atlantic Canada branch of the Red Cross is making some major changes in an effort to deal with the increasing number of severe disasters striking the region.
The Red Cross currently manages a team of 850 core volunteers in the four Atlantic Provinces, but a steady stream of hurricanes, fires, floods and pandemics is prompting the organization to add an additional 150 people to the ranks.
“We’ve been on call for storms much more over the last few years,” said Bill Lawlor, director of disaster management for the Red Cross in Atlantic Canada. “We work very closely with scientists who are climate change experts, who are telling us that we need to be on guard, particularly in Atlantic Canada…with the exposure to hurricane activity.”
Lawlor said the organization is also planning to recruit 3,000 reserve volunteers by 2015, who could contribute in the event of a major disaster.
“Those reserve volunteers will be stationed in higher-risk areas, like in high density areas or along the coastal regions,” he explained. “We would have management in place from our core volunteers, and then we have people providing other services in a non-managerial way from the reservist group.”
Once you take into account initial training, mock disaster exercises and regular meetings, Lawlor said every core volunteer costs the organization about $1,100 per year – meaning that adding an extra 150 people will cost the Red Cross $165,000.
“We have some very strong corporate partnerships,” Lawlor said when asked where the additional funding would come from. “We work closely with them to say, ‘here’s where we’re going, and if you’d like to be a part of it, this is what we’re looking at for expenses.’”
In 2009, the Red Cross responded to 79 residential fires and 12 non-fire events in the province. During the Spryfield-area fire last spring, volunteers evacuated 1,100 people and provided emergency shelter for 20.
