Disaster Services
Introduction to Disaster Services online course - This simple course is a requirement for people interested in volunteering for disaster work. There are no tests...just watch and learn.
Each year, the American Red Cross responds to more than 70,000 disasters, including house or apartment fires (the majority of disaster responses), hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions, and other natural and man-made disasters.
Although the American Red Cross is not a government agency, its authority to provide disaster relief was formalized in 1905, when the American Red Cross was chartered by Congress to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." The Charter is not only a grant of power, but also an imposition of duties and obligations to the nation, to disaster victims, and to the people who generously support its work with their donations.
Red Cross disaster relief focuses on meeting people's immediate emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides:
- shelter
- food
- healthcare
- mental health services
The Red Cross also:
- feeds emergency workers
- handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area
- provides blood and blood products to disaster victims
- helps those affected by disaster to access other available resources.