Red Cross support on-going for 2013 flood victims

A year after flood waters caused severe damage on the Siksika and Stony Nakoda First Nations, the Canadian Red Cross continues its work in the recovery phase.

“Immediately after the flood, we had teams of staff and volunteers to Siksika and Stoney First Nations, primarily focused on supporting the flood and evacuation centres as per invitation by the Nations themselves,” said Provincial Director Jenn McManus.

Treaty 7 members Siksika and Stony Nakoda First Nations were largely impacted as both are situated close to the Bow River.  Parts of Tsuu Tina Nation were also affected.

Food, water, personal hygiene kits, and home clean-up kits were made available to the evacuees as part of the initial relief phase, as was funding to food banks.

While the Red Cross does not usually work with in-kind donations from other sources, they assisted with the referral process as thousands of donations came in from across Canada and the United States.

“It was very intense. Everyone wanted to donate but the capacity to manage those in-kind donations is always a challenge in the relief stage. The Nations created their own recovery management so we worked with those individuals to identify the need and where Red Cross can step in and assist,” said McManus, who personally liaised with the First Nations leaders in order to actively ensure communication was met.

With the recovery phase now in motion, Red Cross is providing ongoing support to assist families and individuals; to clean-up, repair and rehabilitate shelters and homes; to support community initiatives and small businesses; and to work on community resiliency and disaster preparedness.

Red Cross has supported the community in a variety of ways.  It helped fund the annual Treaty Hockey Tournament in April, as well as providing a youth babysitting course and upcoming youth swimming lessons. It had a hand in helping to refurbish cultural artifacts that may have been damaged in the flood. Red Cross is in the process of working with a Single Mothers initiative in Siksika to support single moms who have been affected by the flood.

A survey of those who received aid from Red Cross indicated that 94 per cent felt the assistance was adequate, while 92 per cent felt that the presence of Red Cross in the community gave them hope and a sense of optimism during and after the disaster, says McManus.

 “We are not a government,” she said.  “We have some flexibility based on need and communication with First Nations. Every community enters a disaster with a different level of resiliency and capacity, so the work to be done in Siksika will vary significantly with the work being done on Stoney Nakoda.”

McManus points out that the Red Cross is still accepting applications for short term help and accepting proposals for community initiatives as a way to bring the members together in a healthy and safe environment.

The flood in southern Alberta is the largest disaster response in the history of the Red Cross, says McManus.  With $42 million raised for Alberta and $27.5 million spent to date,  70,000 individuals from all of the affected areas have received assistance. McManus says given the scope and impact of the work so far, the recovery is foreseen to last another two years.