After Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Sept. 14 causing devastating damage, Duncan’s Gary Carleton was dispatched to help.
A staffer with the Red Cross’s Victoria office, Carleton is the emergency management coordinator for Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Gulf Islands. He’s part of a group of 22 highly trained Red Cross employees from Canada on the ground in the Carolinas.
“We have a relationship with the American Red Cross that when there is an event of this magnitude we will come down,” he explained. “We’ll come in for a little while and if the American Red Cross still requires assistance we’ll do another round of deployment, then a further round.”
It’s a reciprocal agreement.
The U.S. branch helped with the Alberta floods in 2013 and has helped with the B.C. wildfires as well.
READ MORE: Hurricane Center: Florence makes landfall in N. Carolina
VIDEO: Watch hurricane Florence make landfall in the U.S.
For this mission, Carleton’s team is that of shelter support.
“Our assignment is to travel within the state of North Carolina to visit shelters. There’s currently 27 of them in North Carolina and our job is to provide assistance to the shelter managers and anything they need we can assist with,” he explained. “The team I’m on are shelter experts and they can provide guidance or just advice on how to improve the running of the shelter.”
Hurricane Florence dissipated around Sept. 19, leaving at least 48 dead and causing an estimated $38US billion in damage.
Carleton said it’s estimated 8,000 to 10,000 homes have suffered major damage and/or were destroyed. And in some cases, flooding is still occurring.
“It’s very widespread,” he said. “There are some rivers that are just recently cresting. In Georgetown, NC, there was evacuations of 90 per cent of their community due to high tides and the cresting of the river. So it’s still happening sporadically through the state,” he said.
By Sept. 25, Carleton noted some 600 roads were still impassible.
“When you’re driving the Interstates it’s not that obvious, there are broken trees, however there are really no homes or structures along the Interstates,” Carleton explained. “It’s when you get back in the back country roads and you see the widespread flooding and right now we’re starting to see homes where the front yard is full of the contents of the house.”
While normal life has ground to a halt for most, slowly but surely the pieces are being picked up as best they can.
“We’re finding now as the days go on here we’re seeing a lot of line crews, they’ve restored power in a lot of areas,” Carleton said. “It looks like the major interstate, the one we travel down to the coast on, is open.”
He is due home on Oct. 11 from his 21-day deployment. Carleton has one piece of advice to Cowichan residents for preparing for disaster:
“Have a full tank of gas,” he said. “If you have to evacuate and you run out of gas, that’s a problem. Have a full tank of gas and have a ready bag with at least copies of your important papers, medication, a copy of your passport if not your actual passport, and have those in a secure place near your front door so when you evacuate you can grab that and go.”
The Canadian Red Cross is appealing to citizens to help with the Hurricane Florence response efforts.
Canadians wishing to make a financial donation to the Hurricane Florence appeal can donate online at www.redcross.ca, or by calling 1-800-418-1111 or by contacting their local Canadian Red Cross office.
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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