page_title: American Red Cross
section_title: Disasters service
hierarchical_section_title: American Red Cross / Disasters service
caption_attribution_description: English: Lake City, Fla., July 9, 2012 -- A Red Cross Emergency Operations Center communications antenna is set at the building adjacent to the Columbia County FEMA/State Disaster Recovery Center. FEMA and the Red Cross are partners in disaster services to Tropical Storm Debby survivors. George Armstrong/FEMA - Location: Lake City, FL
context_page_description: The American Red Cross, also known as The American National Red Cross, is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the designated US affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the United States movement to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
  The organization offers services and development programs.
context_section_description: Each year, ARC responds to more than 60,000 disasters, including house or apartment fires (making up the majority), hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions and other natural and man-made disasters.
  Although ARC is not a government agency, its authority to provide disaster relief was formalized when, in 1905, it was granted a congressional charter to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." The charter is not only a grant of power but also an imposition of duties and obligations to the nation, to disaster victims and to the people who support its work with their donations.
  Disaster relief focuses on emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, ARC provides shelter, food and health and mental health services (Psychological First Aid) to address basic human needs. The core of American Red Cross disaster relief is assistance to individuals and families to enable them to resume their normal daily activities. The organization provides translation and interpretation when necessary, and maintains a database of multilingual volunteers.
  At the local level, ARC chapters operate volunteer-staffed Disaster Action Teams.
  ARC feeds emergency workers of other agencies, handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area, provides blood and blood products to disaster victims and helps those affected by a disaster to access other resources. It is a member of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and works closely with other agencies such as Salvation Army and Amateur Radio Emergency Service with whom it has memorandums of understanding.
  ARC works to encourage preparedness by providing important literature on readiness. Many chapters also offer free classes to the general public.
  A major misconception among the general public is that ARC provides medical facilities, engages in search and rescue operations or deploys ambulances. Instead, first responder roles are left to government agencies as dictated by the National Response Framework. Red Cross societies outside the U.S. may provide such functions; for example, the Cruz Roja Mexicana (Mexican Red Cross) runs a national ambulance service. Furthermore, American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) look similar to ambulances. These ERVs instead are designed for bulk distribution of relief supplies, such as meals, drinks and other relief supplies. Although ARC shelters usually assign a nurse to the facility, they are not equipped to provide medical care beyond first aid.
caption: Satellite communications after tropical storm Debby in Lake City, Florida, 2012
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Lake City, Fla., July 9, 2012 -- A Red Cross Emergency Operations Center communications antenna is set at the building adjacent to the Columbia County FEMA/State Disaster Recovery Center. FEMA and the Red Cross are partners in disaster services to Tropical Storm Debby survivors.  George Armstrong/FEMA", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:12 14:07:30", "Image Artist": "George Armstrong", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image XPKeywords": "[70, 0, 76, 0, 95, 0, 52, 0, 48, 0, 54, 0, 56, 0, 95, 0, 68, 0, 82, 0, 67, 0, 50, 0, 95, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "2704", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "5432", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5546", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5704", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:09 14:45:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:07:09 14:45:35", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "41/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "42", "EXIF SubSecTime": "15", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "15", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "15", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5412", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "63", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4100"}