It’s been a busy summer for American Red Cross volunteers.

What You Need To Know

  •  Doug North of Marcellus recently went on his first deployment with the American Red Cross to help people affected by wildfires

  •  The American Red Cross needs volunteers for disaster responses

  • Various skill sets can help with disaster response

Doug North has volunteered with the American Red Cross for 10 years. During this milestone year, he made the trip from Onondaga County to New Mexico for his first deployment.

“We were about 100 miles from the actual epicenter. The epicenter was up in the mountains, and where we were was down in the lower lands, which is very flat and dry," North said.

North said he helped with running a warehouse of supplies, a task he has experience with, and a skill that is needed.

“They have pre-positioned trailers to support shelters and things like that, so we warehouse them and then daily they come down with the truck and get what they need for beds, for water, blankets. And then we also do what they call, ‘distribution of emergency supplies’," North said.

When there’s a disaster, a variety of skill sets are in high demand.

“There's a command staff, there's operations, there's logistics, they're sheltering mass care. And then we have external relations as well. And within each of those is subsets. So, you know, a disaster could run anywhere from 300 to 1000 volunteers at one time," said American Red Cross Eastern NY Region Executive Director Lisa Smith.

“It was a great experience. There’s people from all over the country and it's very interesting to interact with people from different chapters. One of my team members was from West Virginia. Another one was from Indianapolis," North said.

With so many natural disasters taking place this year, American Red Cross staff said there has been a strain on volunteers, and also a strain on emergency management in many areas.