Responding to the Call

Sunday morning, at about 7:15, I woke from a deep sleep to the sound of my phone ringing. Deeply confused and not all the way awake, I answered it with a murmurred "yello?" It was Mary, the night worker at the Red Cross here in Indianapolis. There had been an apartment fire at 71st and Michigan Rd, and I was one of the DATs on call. By the time she finished talking I had my feet on the floor and my eyes had eased open. This was it. This was what I was trained to do.

Although I have been on the Disaster Action Team roster since August, Sunday was the first time I was called to the scene of a disaster. I pulled up on 71st street to a confusing jumble of fire trucks, police cars, and emergency vehicles. In my Red Cross vest, I was quickly spotted by a fireman and taken to the office building where the people affected by the fire were being offered coffee and donuts, a small, but welcome comfort after their ordeal. I met up with my fellow DATs on my way to the building, and the three of us helped over 30 people get housing, food, and clothes to meet their immediate needs.

We helped some get hotel rooms, some needed medicine, and some really needed to tell what had happened. I heard what it was like to wake up to the smell of smoke or the fire department knocking on your door. After it was over, they were allowed back into their fire damaged and water-logged homes with an escort from the fire department. One man came back only with his wife's blackened keys.

Being a member of the Disaster Action Team is a big responsibility. It means keeping your paperwork organized so you are ready to go, being on call during the night and while the office is closed, and working with your team to give the best response. DAT members are also willing to respond to the smallest disasters, the ones that don't make a blip in the local news, the disasters that only affect only one family, because that family needs us just as much care and comfort as the vicitims of a flood, tornado, or hurricane.

Unfortunately, DAT volunteers in the outlying counties are rare. In some cases, the entire county is served by only four devoted DAT volunteers. If you are interested in learning more about this challenging and important role with the Red Cross, please contact me (lbradley@redcross-indy.org) or visit our website at www.redcross-indy.org/Volunteer/Volunteer.aspx.