CNN iReport

Most people are familiar with the American Red Cross.  Its big red cross symbol is easily recognized.

The American Red Cross, a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and guided by its Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross Movement, provides relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.

Providing emergency relief in the form of shelter, food and emotional support to survivors of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, floods, even terrorist attacks, is what the Red Cross does best.

What many people may not realize is that the majority of Red Cross workers sent to help are volunteers. The American Red Cross has 822,602 volunteers nationwide.

One of every 363 Americans is a Red Cross Volunteer.

I am one of those volunteers.

For the past year-and-a-half I have been deployed (a military term for 'sent into action') to national and local disasters for Red Cross.

Lots of other volunteers I have met in my travels became active with the Red Cross when Hurricane Katrina hit three years ago.

Not me.

About seven years before I retired, as a newspaper photographer I was covering what some local Red Cross volunteers were doing in the community where I lived and worked in Washington state. I told myself that I was going to do what they are doing when I retire.

And, now at the ripe old age of 55, I am an American Red Cross volunteer.

I moved to Sacramento two years ago after living in Washington state for 26 years. I joined the Sacramento-Sierra Red Cross chapter January 2007 and have been deployed numerous times to local and national disasters.

Most recently, I was the first of 60 volunteers deployed from the Sacramento-Sierra Red Cross Chapter to the relief operation for the 2008 Hurricanes.   Public Affairs was my assignment. Skills I used in my working years continue to be useful in my 'golden years'.

Disaster Public Affairs purpose is to ensure that vital relief and recovery information is shared in a timely and accurate manner with both internal and external audiences on a disaster relief operation.

A disaster is "a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life ."

It should also refer to Murphy's Law - "a supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popularsayings, to the effect that anything that can go wrong will."

When we volunteers  deploy the first thing we do is make our plane reservation which typically means we will be flying the next day to the disaster area. The Red Cross uses a specific travel agency that makes our reservations for us. 

We packed hurriedly and took care of last minute arrangements for our pets, plants, and home.

Many times I've been up at 3am to catch the airport shuttle for an early flight. Typically, total travel time is eight hours or more. Once we've landed, we are to call an information line that will tell us what we do next and where we report.

When I landed in Alexandria, LA I spotted seven other volunteers who had just landed from various states. Around 11pm, Murphy's Law kicked in as we congealed and called for our next step - where do we go now? We had no clue.

The airport was closing shortly, by the way.

Our good fortune won over Murphy's Law and we were picked up by a person from the local chapter.  After checking in we headed to our Staff Shelter, which was at a Baptist Church, in the gymnasium.

We got lost. On these deployments, we are people in unfamiliar territory, usually trying to find our way in the dark. Without a GPS or compass in the vehicle.

Eventually we arrived, and each of us grabbed a Red Cross cot. I parked my suitcase and camera gear under my smaller-than twin-size canvas bed. Of course there were no pillows or blankets available. The air-conditioning was on and eventually I used my vinyl raincoat as my blanket and rolled up clothes cradled my head.

I woke up at 5:30am and four of us went for breakfast.

As volunteers we are given an American Red Cross-issued credit card pre-loaded with funds. Thirty dollars is our allowable amount spent per day. Sometimes we eat in restaurants and sometimes a local eatery will gratuitously drop off large quantities of food for lunch or dinner.

At the headquarters I met a woman who, for her day job, works at the chapter which was serving as home-base for over 350 of us volunteers arriving from all over the U.S..

As Public Affairs workers, we were gathering information from other departments; how many volunteers have arrived, how many evacuees are safe in shelters, how many shelters are open and how many volunteers are manning thems, how many Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) were available for mobile feeding?

Of course this was all taking place while new volunteers were arriving and the numbers were constantly changing. People who had the information I was seeking were not always at their desk and I didn't have their phone number. I didn't even know what they looked like.

And this was all taking place two days before the hurricane hit.

My first day there, a man from Merced, CA and a woman from Colorado Springs, CO arrived. The three of us grew into a functional team. Luckily we were strangers who got along.

The day before the hurricane, my team of three went to the largest shelter open in Alexandria.  With my camera I moved through the shelter that housed over 800 evacuees from southern LA. I saw people expressing all ranges of emotion - shock, sadness, fear, happiness, acceptance, anger.

Part of my job in Public Affairs was to take photographs of the evacuees (with their permission). The right pictures can tell their story. I moved through the shelter, making eye contact with the evacuees when possible, offering them encouragement or other kind words.

One shelter resident wore white rubber rain boots. He had been literally plucked from a fishing boat and bussed to the shelter.

These human beings lives were basically on-hold until the hurricane made landfall, perhaps changing their lives once again. I tried to put myself in their place.

What if my life were changed like that, through no choice of my own?

I've been fortunate in that most of my life-transitions were under my own steam, not born of a disaster.

Soon I would have a taste of what the evacuees experienced.

The day Hurricane Gustav roared up Louisiana, we left headquarters at 2pm. The hurricane was making its path directly toward us.

Around 4pm the wind and rain picked up. We watched the storm from the safety of the church. After the winds briefly calmed down, several of us grabbed our shampoo and soap, and bathed inder the cleansing showers of the hurricane - fully-clothed of course.

The other volunteers grabbed their cameras and we were all laughing like crazy.

Amazingly, we all slept, though I was awakened by someone who told me I was snoring.

The next morning, we rode back to headquarters. Damage spotted along the route consisted mainly of damage to roofs.

My team went back to the evacuee's shelter. Since Gustav had passed over us the power had been out in the shelters for many hours. Once power was restored an announcement was made to the evacuees, saying as soon as we learned when they could return to their homes, we would let them know.

A concerted effort was made to provide them with food and water. So many of them were grateful to the Red Cross for caring for them. Of course, there were those who felt like they weren't getting everything they deserved.

The relief effort was a win/win situation because there were no massive fatalities like those suffered during Katrina.

Tornado warnings and watches were in effect the night after the hurricane. For an hour, those of us in the church were hunkered down in a hall in case of a tornado touch-down.

The fun was just starting.  We were jolted awake by a river running through our sleeping area.

It was rapidly flowing through our space, and within a matter of minutes it was more than four inches deep. 

I thought to myself "we have no idea how high it can get". My alter ego, a Marine drill sergeant, started telling my cohorts that we needed to get upstairs. Fast. We made it upstairs while we were still able to roll our suitcases without getting the contents wet.

The water stopped at 7 inches deep.  We let the pastor of the church know he had a lake in his church.  When he  miraculously arrived everyone helped him put things up out of reach of the water.

And there we 20 volunteers sat. The rental cars had gotten soaked and were unsafe to drive.  Four of the Emergency Response Vehicles were in over-the-tires depth of water. One even began to float.

We were stranded yet safe. I thought of the Katrina victims who had been stranded for six days on rooftops before being rescued.

Our own "disaster within a disaster" was nothing compared to what they went through.

By the time we were rescued, I noticed I was getting a sore throat.  My right hearing aid had died from the Louisiana moisture.

By the next day, my head was so congested, and,with my right hearing aid dead, I couldn't understand anything anyone said.  A sinus infection had me in its grips.

I threw in the proverbial towel and made arrangements to fly home. I luckily didn't blow my eardrums during the flight.

And during the plane ride, I somehow injured my left knee, areas above and below it and to the sides. All I did was use the restroom and when I stepped into my seat area with my left leg, all of a sudden my leg collapsed on me.

How many people do you know who hurt their knee riding in a perfectly safe plane (and not jumping out of it)?

By now you're wondering if I'll do another disaster deployment, right? The answer is a resounding "Yes".

I need a purpose, a mission, in my life. The American Red Cross offers this on an ongoing basis.  As a photographer, I am able to make connections with people.

I think when people have their photos taken in any situation, pleasant or not, they are being acknowledged for what they are going through.

Having people tell their stories is what the American Red Cross is all about. That's when their recovery begins.