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Red Cross Helped
Hundreds of Thousands in 2016
(January 9, 2017) — In a year that set new records for severe and
devastating weather, the American Red Cross provided more assistance to
the hundreds of thousands of people impacted by these disasters all
across the United States than in the past two years combined.
In 2016, 32,000 Red Cross volunteers responded to 180 significant
disasters in 45 states and two U.S. territories including wildfires,
storms, flooding, Hurricane Matthew and other emergencies. Those
volunteers opened nearly 800 emergency shelters, provided 206,000
overnight shelter stays to people forced from their homes, served more
than 4.1 million meals and snacks, and distributed more than 2.1
million relief items.
Volunteers from the are responded to 10 of those major disasters,
including:
Flint, Michigan, water crisis in January
Alberta, Canada, wildfires in May
Texas flooding in May
West Virginia flooding in June
Orlando mass shooting in June
Kentucky flooding in July
Louisiana flooding in August
Indiana tornado in August
Iowa flooding in September
Hurricane Matthew in October
These national disasters were in addition to the local disasters that
struck our region, including flooding in the spring and fall, tornadoes
and severe storms.
“This year a seemingly endless chain of disasters affected hundreds of
thousands of people and our Red Cross volunteers were there, helping,”
says Lynne Gump, Executive Director of the Northern Miami Valley Ohio
Chapter of the American Red Cross. “People impacted by disaster are
facing what can be their darkest days, but we helped around the clock,
making sure people had food to eat, a place to stay and help
recovering. We couldn’t do all that we do without our volunteers or the
generosity of the public. We aren’t a government agency, so the help we
provide to families affected by disasters depends on generous financial
donations of the American people.”
Amidst all of these devastating events, home fires continued to be the
largest disaster threat in the United States. During 2016, the Red
Cross nationally provided assistance to 79,000 families after a home
fire left them with nowhere else to turn. The Red Cross and thousands
of local partners are also working to help prevent home fires, deaths
and injuries. Since 2014, at least 116 lives have been saved through
the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign in which 574,000 smoke alarms have
been installed and 625,000 youth have been taught about fire
safety. To find out how you can help save lives, build a stronger
community or even to prepare your family call your local Red Cross or
the website www.redcross.org/NMVO.
About the American Red Cross:
The Northern Miami Valley Ohio Chapter of the American Red Cross has
taught lifesaving skills, and provided disaster prevention, relief and
recovery services to the Northern Miami Valley since 1917. For more
information, please visit RedCross.org/NMVO or follow us on Twitter at
@NMVORedCross or on Facebook at Facebook.com/
American-Red-Cross-Northern-Miami-Valley-Ohio.
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