Volunteers ready when disaster hits

Connie Cousins

A disaster can mean anything from a power outage — such as the outages caused by last month's early season snow — to hurricanes and floods. And when a disaster strikes, the Red Cross is there, setting up shelters and passing out cleaning supplies, water and clothing — whatever is needed.

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Locally, training is done through the American Red Cross Unit in State College. The State College office can send teams to anywhere within Centre County and the southeastern corner of Clear-field County. Volunteer tasks include paperwork in the office, blood drives and, after training, possible deployment to help respond to emergencies wherever they may occur.

Here's a look at some of Bellefonte-area residents who are among those standing ready to respond to disasters:

• Romayne Naylor is the emergency services director of the Centre Communities Chapter of the American Red Cross. Her volunteers describe her as upbeat and tireless in her efforts to motivate them. The volunteers are placed on call according to their availability. Local disaster action teams are first responders.

• Volunteer coordinator Rose Stover has been deployed to floods in Montrose, Chicago and the Virgin Islands. Stover works in the office, helps recruit new volunteers and teaches new recruits. During Hurricane Katrina, her first deployment, she spent three weeks in the Baton Rouge, La., area, where she did sheltering and client casework.

• Volunteer Nancy Noll said it was Katrina that caught her attention and drew her into Red Cross work. She trained, took classes and later became a trainer herself. She was deployed to San Diego to help respond to wildfires in 2007 and to Indiana during floods in 2008. She describes her first time out as “awesome.” She was near Potrero, Texas, and described the clients as “salt of the earth” people and so very grateful for the help.

• Another volunteer from the Bellefonte area is Paula Roberts. Hurricane Katrina was the catalyst for her involvement in the Red Cross work also. She spent two months in the New Orleans area at La Place handing out cleaning supplies and water.

• The warm welcoming manner of the people at that church was amazing,” Roberts said. She said the church provided meals for them and helped make the team comfortable. She also has been to California during fires to do sheltering work.

• Ruth Evans Fultz is from Bellefonte and said that after a quick training in the wake of Hurricane Katrina she helped deal with its aftermath in Beaumont, Texas. The team worked out of a church where people went for basic food, comfort kits and financial assistance.

Connie Cousins writes the weekly On Centre column on Bellefonte. She can be reached at connie.cousins@yahoo.com.