Local woman helped hurricane victims in Florida
When she returned from the Gulf Coast region a week ago, Red Cross professional volunteer Jan Masuda said she hoped people in Morgan Hill would not only reach out to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but also be more aware of local disaster preparations.
“If everyone would just take a few minutes to talk with their families about where they would meet, what they would do, and if everyone would just take a few minutes to stick an extra pair of shoes in the trunk of their car, to make sure they have extra batteries and flashlights on hand, plenty of water,” she said. “It doesn’t take long to put aside supplies to make sure your family has enough food and water for three days.”
A former school board trustee, Masuda has been involved in community emergency preparedness planning and has just signed on to help the Morgan Hill School District with its emergency planning.
“If anything good comes out of this horrible situation (in the Gulf Coast area), I hope it is that all of us are more aware of the potential for devastation and make some effort, either community-wide or personally, to be able to sustain ourselves in the aftermath,” she said.
After spending a week in Florida, seeing the devastation of the lives of the people there, Masuda likened the scene to the aftermath of a war.
“One has a sense that this is something you cannot totally understand, it would be hard for anyone who hasn’t been there to understand,” she said. “It is such a large disaster, it is like a war zone, only the enemy is not man-made, the enemy is the hurricane.”
The Red Cross, she said, is still seeking volunteers to help hand out supplies, to check on the condition of homes and to visit those who are still in the area to be sure they have clothing, food and medication.
There has been a nationwide outreach of support for the cities hit hardest by the powerful hurricane, although the federal government has been criticized for not mobilizing aid soon enough.
Masuda said as soon as Hurricane Katrina was identified as a possible threat to the Gulf Coast, the Red Cross sent out an e-mail asking for volunteers. Although she didn’t respond at that time, she said after the hurricane hit, and she saw the level of devastation, she decided to call and offer her help.
“I called at approximately 4pm, and by 10:30pm, I had a call back, saying, ‘Call the travel agency, we need you out on the next plane, ASAP.’ So I quickly packed up and reported to the chapter office.”
The local chapter wants to be sure potential volunteers are healthy, Masuda said, and has to have copies of current licenses, if the volunteer is offering professional services.
A marriage and family counselor for 20 years, Masuda is classified by the Red Cross as a “professional volunteer” because she can use her professional skills to help those in need.
The day after Masuda arrived in Florida, she attended a morning staff meeting where she and other volunteers were briefed on conditions in the area and received their assignments. She was slated to work with the family services division.
“We had lists of homes, and we would go out and call upon the residents who had previously contacted the Red Cross and requested some kind of aid,” she said. “Our job was to assess their needs, to see what their immediate needs were. We had to check their food supply, to see if they had food right now. Did they have at least two sets of clothing – one they were wearing and another they could change into. We checked to determine if the residence was livable, and if not, get them to shelters.”
The difficult aspect of her tour of duty in Florida, Masuda said, was the emotional side.
“The area that I was in, which was hit hard, was a depressed, poor area, with people just barely making it in life,” she said. “The devastation was widespread, miles and miles of it, with huge trees uprooted, like someone had picked them up and tossed them aside. And homes with roofs collapsed and extensive damage making them uninhabitable. There was a true sense of despair, people on the edge of despair with no safety net.”
To volunteer or to offer financial assistance, call the Red Cross at 1-800-HELP-NOW, or visit the Web site at www.redcross.org.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 Ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.