Whatever the Weather: Modernizing Emergency Relief Efforts

First responders in the state move from snowshoes and riding horseback to the most innovative modern transportation technologies.


Getty Images.

THEN: Stormy weather has been around forever, though without modern technology, the inconveniences were far greater. In 1925, this Red Cross nurse had to travel on snowshoes to a stranded patient’s home in the Ramapo Mountains. First responders had to maneuver through snowdrifts and wade through flooded rivers on horseback.


Marc Steiner/ANJ.

NOW: Today, displacement from severe weather is still the number one cause for disaster-relief assistance. Three weeks after Hurricane Sandy, volunteers from the American Red Cross helped distribute cleaning supplies, water, tarps, and shovels to victims of the storm in Lavallette. At press time, the Red Cross had deployed more than 14,000 trained disaster workers and provided more than 5.2 million relief items to the region devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

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