By Sherylin McMurtrey
Hurricane Frances indirectly caused more automobile related deaths than deaths directly attributed to the storm.
?There are no traffic lights,? said Randy Franks, local Red Cross director of emergency services of the Mountain Valley Chapter who has been working closely with volunteers in Florida. ?There are no stops signs and people are dying in automobile crashes more frequently than the hurricane caused deaths because people are used to flying down a road at 50 miles per hour that normally allows them to do that and they haven?t adjusted to the ?every corner is a four-way stop.??
Hurricane Frances left at least 14 people dead and about 3 million without electricity Tuesday.
Nearly 2.8 million Floridians were ordered from their homes in the largest evacuation in the state?s history, affecting 47 of Florida?s 67 counties.
Frances barreled into Florida?s east coast early Sunday with winds reaching 115 mph and an excess of more than 13 inches of rain, shredded and tore up roofs, smashed cars and boats, washed away a section of I-95 and flooded the streets, according to the Associated Press.
This hurricane did more damage to the Kennedy Space Center?s Vehicle Assembly Building than any other storm in history, when it tore an approximate 1,000 exterior panels off the building where NASA assembles spaceships.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Web site reported having sent relief to hurricane victims in the form of truckloads of food, hygiene kits and emergency supplies to both Orlando and Atlanta.
Frank returned to the local Red Cross office in Provo to continue to coordinate relief efforts and begin to pre-stage efforts for Hurricane Ivan, which is anticipated to hit the United States later next week.
The American Red Cross has four chapters in Utah and each chapter has it?s own emergency response vehicle, roughly the size of an ambulance, which delivers emergency supplies to areas in need.
?Two of those have been deployed already and the third will be deployed here shortly to the hurricanes,? Frank said. ?We?ve had two already and another one pending.?
Utah chapters of the Red Cross deployed 15 volunteers, and the Mountain Valley Chapter alone will send another 20 volunteers to aid in the recovery from Frances.
To date the Red Cross has served more than 1 million meals and snacks to victims, emergency officials and disaster workers, and more than 318,000 of those meals were served Monday, and that?s just for Hurricane Frances.
?For Hurricane Charley, during peak time before they had to shut down for Hurricane Frances, they were serving a quarter of a million meals a day,? Frank said.
The Red Cross hasn?t put a price estimate on the damage from Hurricane Frances yet. It will be heftier than the price tag for Hurricane Charley because Frances hit Florida harder than Charley did.
With the number of victims needing assistance from the Red Cross climbing, the greatest need the Red Cross has right now is money.
?Some people wonder why we ask for money,? Frank said. ?In a disaster like this or any other disaster there is an influx of numerous in-kind donations ? unsolicited donations. It inundates the economy.?
Currently, the Red Cross budgets donated money to cover the costs needed to ship and store donated items until needed.
?It?s a donations management issue that has plagued the world,? Frank said. ?And people have wonderful big hearts that want to give because it?s the only way they can help, but the best way to do it is with cash.?
The Red Cross would prefer people to donate money so they can purchase the items locally as need for them arises. Money goes a lot further than donating actual items because shipping and storage expenses are not an issue.
?So if we sent the money in there, we would help revitalize the economy so these people don?t go under and lose their livelihood,? Frank said. ?That is the best thing to do.?
After Federal Emergency Management Agency and state money is gone, donated money steps in to cover the needs that local government couldn?t meet.
?If you had a closet or a garage full of clothes, a suggestion for you: have a garage sale, take that money and donate it.?
The American Red Cross isn?t the only volunteer agency working to help with disaster relief. Other agencies work together as members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active Disaster. NVOAD is national and statewide.
?They help put all these pieces together,? Frank said. ?That?s so all these organizations are working in unison and they?re not duplicating efforts so donated money is not being wasted.?
Other agencies include: Adventist Community Services, Humane Society of the United States, International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, The Salvation Army, National Emergency Response Team, the Southern Baptist Convention and numerous other organizations.
Relief agencies worry about more than just the economy during times of emergency.
?As with any disaster the first things that we do is provide safe shelter and food,? Frank said. ?As well as mental health and physical health support for those that are affected.?
Volunteers like Dr. Richard Heaps, professor of educational psychology at BYU and a psychologist, assist in helping emotionally or mentally traumatized victims of a disaster.
Heaps got involved volunteering his services with the Red Cross during Hurricane Andrew in the early 1990s.
?There was such an incredible need for mental health assistance, which the Red Cross up until then wasn?t really providing in any real large scale,? he said. ?They recognized the emotional toll of large and traumatic disasters and put out a plea for mental health professionals to come and help, so I decided that I would get involved.?
The mental health of those involved in a disaster range from minor to severe.
?I recall a woman in a tornado who was asked the name of her children so she could get assistance, and she could not remember their names until we provided some mental health help and got her to where she could recall their names and could again begin functioning,? Heaps said.
Another way people can assist the Red Cross is to become a trained volunteer.
?A way that people can help here locally, not just financially, is to become affiliated with the Red Cross,? Frank said. ?So we can get you trained so if you want to deploy to things like this we can send you out.?
Red Cross volunteers returned to Florida after being forced to leave because of safety issues when Frances hit. Volunteers will stay there until the state says they have to evacuate again.
?The Red Cross will be there throughout however many events happen,? Frank said. ?We will be there.?
