Atlanta American Red Cross (2005)

At the top of the hill where I-85, Buford Highway, and Monroe Drive "rub shoulders", the Atlanta American Red Cross headquarters houses not only an impressive disaster response command center, but also some friends with wisdom, experiences, and brave hearts.

At the December CityLights, Tim English, CEO of the Red Cross of Metro Atlanta, shared how the local Red Cross served over 40,000 families in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The statistics for the size of the response in Georgia are astounding: Georgia had the second-largest number of evacuees in the nation (Texas had the greatest number).
41 million was given to help 41,000 families in four weeks. The local Red Cross annual budget is only 10.5 million, so a disbursement of this size was a big step of faith.
The Metro Atlanta Chapter trained over 8000 new volunteers in the days following the hurricanes. They reduced their standard two day volunteer training program into a two-hour course and equipped volunteers to serve without delay.

The Red Cross not only provides disaster response on a large scale, but also assists with local emergencies, such as helping victims of apartment fires and tornadoes. Metro Atlanta averages two house fires a night and the Red Cross has small trucks and teams that respond to assist families in need. The function of the Red Cross in receiving donations of blood is well known, but what is less known is that the Georgia Red Cross currently imports 5000 units of blood per month from other areas of the nation to meet the high needs of our population.

Marilyn Self, RN and Manager of Disaster Readiness, led our group on a tour through their crisis response rooms. The facilities stand ready with video feeds from around the country, world maps, and capacity to immediately expand their computer network and establish phone banks to serve a broad range of emergency communication needs. The building has clearly been taken care of, improved, and upgraded faithfully and strategically so that the Red Cross is able to quickly assess disaster situations and plan the best response.

We had time at CityLights to touch on only a portion of all that the Red Cross does. For more information on the Metro Atlanta Red Cross, please see the website at www.atlantaredcross.org.