Pa. Red Cross volunteers train for disasters, which are increasing with climate change

• Rachel McDevitt
  BioRecent Stories

  

  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

Dean Leis, shelter lead, talks to volunteers as The American Red Cross Central Pennsylvania Chapter held a shelter simulation on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church. Jeremy Long - WITF

Red Cross volunteers are preparing to offer emergency shelter to people who might be displaced by disaster.

Disaster program manager Melinda Rosario said the most common disasters in Pennsylvania are house fires and floods. Severe storms and flooding events are expected to increase in the state as global temperatures rise.

Rosario said the changing environment means volunteers can be called up any time.

“We used to have spring flooding and fall flooding and now we just have flooding all the time,” Rosario said. “We’re in a state now where we’ve gone from acute to chronic disasters just due to our environment changing. Folks are deploying more and more.”

The American Red Cross is conducting trainings to make sure volunteers are ready to set up and run temporary shelters for people who can’t return to their homes.

In Mechanicsburg on Tuesday, volunteers with the Central Pennsylvania Chapter learned how to register clients, prepare a dormitory with tarps and cots, and how to accommodate special needs and even pets.

Organizers said the main goal is to provide calm for people as they process the recent trauma of losing their home or being displaced.

So far this year, the United States has had 25 climate-related disasters that cost more than $1 billion each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

In the 1980s, such expensive weather-related disasters averaged about 3 per year.

The American Red Cross Central Pennsylvania Chapter says its volunteers responded to nearly 300 disasters and helped more than 1,200 people in 2022. Incidents range from a single house fire to multi-state natural disasters, such as a hurricane.

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About StateImpact Pennsylvania

StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan Phillips cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.

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