‘All feet on the ground': Red Cross South Florida needs volunteers for hurricane season

Miami Herald

6 days ago

Susy Rodriguez remembers her first time responding to a fatality as an American Red Cross volunteer. It was October 2022 and a fire at a Homestead public housing complex ravaged one family's home, taking the life of a young child who lived there.
Though shaken up, she knew what to do as part of the organization's Disaster Action Team — offer emotional and financial help to kickstart the family's recovery — and got right to it. When she returned home that evening, a call from the Red Cross' mental health team came in.
'I'm thinking to myself, 'Oh my God, I did something wrong. Did I lose it, did I cry?'' she remembered thinking. 'And they were like, 'No, how did you handle it? Do you want to talk about it? What are your feelings about it?' ... I was really impressed by that.'
Rodriguez, who began volunteering with the Red Cross after a 30-year career in real estate brokering, is one of many helpers that say they've stayed faithful to the nonprofit because of its wealth of support for volunteers.
With hurricane season now in full effect, the Red Cross' South Florida chapter is banking on its 'like family' approach and willingness to train anyone in anything to draw in more volunteers to serve the high-risk area.
'We really do provide a ton of training to any volunteer position that's coming on board because 90% of our workforce is volunteers,' Tiffany Gonzalez, the South Florida chapter's communications director, said. 'We want to make sure ... that they feel confident that they know what they're doing and feel empowered, because when we get hit by a disaster, it's really all feet on the ground.'
Preparing for 2025 hurricane season
Last year, the American Red Cross' Florida chapter positioned itself as both a first line of defense and first responder to hurricane monoliths Helene and Milton — each hitting the state's Big Bend as a Category 4 and 3 storm.
The nonprofit mobilized 400 disaster workers ahead of the hurricanes' landfall, anticipating them as some of the worst natural disasters to hit the area. When storm surges and flash floods pelted neighborhoods well past the coastline, the Red Cross provided over 350,000 overnight stays in shelters, over 3.5 million meals, and stocked over 120,000 households with relief items, according to the organization's status reports.
Floridians could face similar fates this summer — including six to 10 hurricanes, three to five being major storms — in what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling an above-average season.
READ MORE: U.S. hurricane forecast: 'Everything is in place' for another above-average season
Volunteers, Gonzalez says, play a large part in keeping South Florida intact during these disasters and the storm seasons that follow.
'We really want to make sure that we have the capacity to respond not only before, but after ... In getting more volunteers, we're able to prep the communities and make them more resilient, which helps in turn help them get back on their feet quicker after a storm.'
The other key? Partnering with hyperlocal organizations that supplement its limited workforce and can address high-risk communities' specific needs.
Started in 2022, the American Red Cross' Community Adaptation Program works with nonprofits in disaster-ridden counties across the United States — including Florida's Lee and Sarasota counties — so that they're ready to be deployed in any given Red Cross disaster response.
To best resource a partner nonprofit, says Cindy Magnuson, the disaster risk reduction manager for Lee County, the Red Cross conducts a two-year audit to assess the financial and professional development help it needs. The nationwide organization drops in on city council meetings and visits local shelters, clinics and food pantries to see whether help should come in the form of grants, consultation sessions with nonprofit sector experts or new equipment.
'I think it's important to know that our relationship doesn't end after two years,' said Magnuson. 'We're not looking at making investments in organizations for them to only use the things during a disaster ... we're helping that community propel themselves into a different place long term.'
The CAP program is also a draw for those interested in volunteering, but strapped for time, Magnuson explains. Most volunteers in the program are sourced from the local nonprofits' existing base to serve only the surrounding communities, eliminating the need for extensive travel that is required by other Red Cross initiatives.
For those with unpredictable schedules, CAP's event-based volunteer opportunities allow you to sign up and help out when available instead of being on call throughout disaster season.
The reason for lowering the barriers to volunteering isn't just to recruit more helpers, clarified Gonzalez, but to allow everyone an opportunity to give back to their community in a manner fulfilling to them.
Openings are available for teams involved in food distribution, emergency response vehicles, services to the armed forces, communications, mental health support, social media, fundraising and more.
There is 'literally something for everyone. Whatever your hobby is, or your passion, or you're really just interested in, there's something for everyone,' said Gonzalez.
'That's the one thing the Red Cross is amazing at.'
Three years into volunteering with the Red Cross, Rodriguez is the shelter resident transition lead for its South Florida chapter, heading rehoming efforts for those who've lost their possessions and houses in disasters.
Her work has taken her across the United States, from Los Angeles to Montana to North Carolina, and even abroad, assisting recovery efforts in territories like Guam and Puerto Rico. She's come face to face with poverty, destruction and hardship, and keeps up her work with the Red Cross because of 'how they take care of their volunteers' and beneficiaries.
'That's the one thing the Red Cross is amazing at. You're a human being? That's it, that's all. That's the only qualifier we need.'