American Red Cross - Anacortes-San Juan Islands Chapter

Disaster Services

The Red Cross primarily responds to disasters and community emergencies providing both emergency and community recovery assistance.

Relief services are designed to minimize the immediate suffering caused by the disaster by providing food, clothing and shelter, and medical, nursing and mental health assistance. Assistance is based on the regional, ethnic, and cultural customs and practices of the people affected by the disaster. It is standardized so that all families with like needs receive like assistance for a specific event, and may be provided either as mass care, individual assistance, or a combination of the two, depending on the needs of the victims.

Imagine that at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the 6th of April, the Washington State Ferry failed to make the turn coming into Friday Harbor and crashed into the docks occupied by visitors and locals living aboard their boats. FORTY victims in minutes: some are near death, some thrown into the icy water and others shaken to their very core. All emergency response agencies and organizations were called out to cope with this disaster.

FOURTEEN local Red Cross volunteers respond...

One group left for the docks driving a Service Vehicle to take uninjured evacuees from the docks to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) building. They also assisted EMS by tending the frightened and marginally injured.

Another group of volunteers opened an Emergency Aid Station at a partner facility of the American Red Cross, Mullis Community Senior Center.

Clients who needed alternative shelter and other assistance were transported to the Emergency Aid Station where they benefitted from a range of American Red Cross support: Health Services, Mental Health Services, and Individual Client Assistance for lodging, cots for respite and a breakfast furnished by the kitchen help of Mullis Community Senior Center.

By 10:30 the drill was closed. All victims were under the care of the Inter-Island Medical Clinic, the EMTs and/or the Emergency Aid Station of the American Red Cross.

The San Juan Island American Red Cross Volunteers who participated in the drill were Maude Cumming, David Eden, Betsey Ferguson, Ron Garner, Brent Johnson, Caroll Kinnaman, Jim Lawrence, Barbara Low, Nathan Mauldin, Alan Roochvarg, Arlin Rothauge, Earlene Rothauge, Allan Smith, and Doug Spaeth. Marie Wertz and Bill Wertz, as Mullis Ctr. Shuttle Van drivers, joined the Red Cross Volunteers.