A co-authored guest post from Terri Richards and Mark Rodrigues
North Carolina’s Red Cross Uses a Weather Watch Team to Enhance Safety and Response
Chartered by Congress with “mitigating the sufferings” during disasters, the American Red Cross goes on scene to provide shelter, meals, health services, other recovery needs and supplies. Yet, in April 2011 when 32 tornados struck North Carolina including an area of downtown Raleigh, local Red Cross Chapters found they had difficulty to quickly determine the extent of the resulting damaging. Without early information regarding the impact to area residents, more time was needed to make decisions regarding the full amount of human and material resources needed for the response.
Soon after the April 2011 event, Raleigh area Red Cross volunteers and staff began an initiative to improve their ability to efficiently assess disasters and enhance the accuracy and speed of response. One outcome was the formation of the Eastern North Carolina Region Weather Watch Team, a volunteer-run and lead program sponsored by the local Red Cross Chapter.
Founded by volunteers Dan Waterman and Mark Tempest, team members monitor conditions that include weather outlooks, current and developing conditions, watches and warnings, eminent threat situations, damage reports, flooding and electrical utility outages.
The team’s purpose includes sorting through, prioritizing and distributing essential information regarding anticipated severe weather, current conditions and summaries of storm impacts. Volunteers also monitor chat rooms, social media and broadcast media for reports of damage and road closures.
Similar to emergency management personnel, the Weather Watch Team works on weekly rotations divided among team members. During periods of rapidly changing weather, more than one volunteer monitors the event in an effort to keep the information moving without overwhelming anyone.
Following severe weather, team members provide reports and maps as needed to summarize the extent of the damage and areas affected. The Weather Team locates many of the tools used to monitor weather and damage [link url=”http://encrcweather.info/” title=”at their website”]. Many of the team’s volunteers are also trained in the use of [link url=”http://www.hurrevac.com/” title=”HURREVAC (Hurricane Decision Support for Emergency Management)”] and [link url=”https://fiman.nc.gov/fiman/About.aspx” title=”FIMAN (Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert)”].
The Eastern North Carolina Weather Watch Team was the first of its kind for the American Red Cross, with other regions beginning to adopt the North Carolina model. To learn more about the Weather Watch Team, or to become a Red Cross volunteer, visit the Raleigh Red Cross Chapter office, 100 N. Peartree Lane, call 919-231-1602, or visit [link url=”http://redcross.org/local/north-carolina/eastern-northern-carolina” title=”our Red Cross website”].
By monitoring severe weather and the resulting damage, the Weather Watch Team helps the Red Cross maintain rapid response capabilities to quickly shelter, feed and support those in need during times of disaster.
Authors
Terri Richards, North Carolina Central Chapter Disaster Assessment Lead, Weather Watch Team. Terri has been my student and is a graduate of the APUS Emergency Management graduate program.
Mark Rodrigues, North Carolina Eastern Regional Disaster Assessment Lead, Weather Watch Team.
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