Chapter Newsletter

Addition Volunteers sent for Ernesto "Watch"

Two additional experienced Red Cross disaster volunteers from the Iowa Rivers Chapter have just been assigned to the Florida “Hurricane Watch.”  They will join 6 other local disaster volunteers who have already left or will leave Tuesday, as leadership teams in preparation for this season’s first hurricane predicted to make landfall. 

Four of the Red Cross volunteers are from Marshall County: Bon Boehler, Laberta Parker, Pat Petrie, and Lorrie Watson, all of Marshalltown. One couple is from Jasper County: Lois and Frank Vogel of Newton, and two disaster volunteers are from Poweshiek County: Bob Inman of Grinnell and Jean Van Voorhis of Brooklyn.

Mary Dooley, local Red Cross director, said “When we send volunteers out before a hurricane hits land, we tell them to be prepared that it may downgrade and not do horrific damage, and in that case it will have been a test of our ability to be prepared to respond.”

“We’re tremendously proud of the number and caliber of disaster volunteers who will take leadership roles like these eight are doing,” Dooley said.