When it comes to disaster response, the Finger Lakes Chapter of the American Red Cross handles hundreds of events and disasters throughout the calendar year.
They also spend a significant amount of time working to prevent disasters. Even training and developing core volunteer staff to respond to various disasters throughout the Finger Lakes Chapter’s six county district takes up a lot of time.
“We represent more than 60,000 people – and I often tell people it’s from Pennsylvania to the Canadian border,” explained Executive Director Brian McConnell, who has been leading the Finger Lakes Chapter in recent-years.
On Thursday, McConnell joined Josh Durso on the Inside the FLX podcast, where he talked about the response thus far in Wayne County along Lake Ontario.
“It’s been an interesting learning experience for us, as we deal with something that I can’t recall happening in the past,” McConnell explained. He said that the slow rise of water on Lake Ontario, which is expected to be ongoing for the next several months before subsiding in mid-August. “It’s unusual, but it’s a great learning experience for us to develop our various responses and prepare.”
He added that the agency remains ready to handle distribution, evacuation and any other needs that may become necessary in the coming months.
McConnell added though that these measures will not impact their agencies ability to respond to single-family house fires, which are among the most-frequent request the Red Cross receives.
Listen to the entire podcast above, and learn how you can get involved with the American Red Cross by clicking here.
