Provo Red Cross volunteers head to Oklahoma

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 19, 2007 | by Jeremy Twitchell Deseret Morning News

PROVO -- Two local Red Cross volunteers departed Provo on Thursday morning, driving an emergency response vehicle to eastern Oklahoma to help deliver food and supplies to rural residents cut off by the snow and ice storms that have created an emergency in the Sooner State.

John Stone, of Springville, and Justin Nelson, of Orem, will spend between 10 days and three weeks in Oklahoma, working with the Red Cross and other groups to make sure residents have everything they need to ride out the storms.

"We're going to be going out to these outlying areas where people don't have water, they don't have food," Stone said. "There's all kind of trees down, power lines down."

Snow and ice have been blamed for 23 deaths so far in Oklahoma alone, where as many as 78,000 people were still without power Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. A state of emergency has been declared for all 77 of the state's counties.

Stone and Nelson will drive the local Red Cross chapter's emergency response vehicle to Oklahoma. The ERV is a modified ambulance that is capable of delivering food to as many as 600 people twice a day.

"Because of the cold weather situation that they're having out there ... they need another ERV," Nelson said. "The ERVs are used to dispense food to people in outlying areas or in areas where they're not able to get groceries or get out to get supplies."

Nelson and Stone have worked together in flooding situations in St. George, landslides in Cedar Hills, and smaller disasters such as house fires. Stone began volunteering after he retired five years ago and recruited Nelson, an old friend from their high school days in Spanish Fork, to join him two years ago.

This will be their first national disaster, but both say they feel well prepared by what they have seen and done in past emergencies. The diversity of the pair's experience shows what the Red Cross is all about, say workers at the local Mountain Valley Chapter.

"We take care of things as small as a house fire and as large something like what Oklahoma's experiencing," said Katrina Pope, emergency services director. "No matter the size of the disaster, it's a disaster to somebody. There are needs that aren't met for somebody, and the Red Cross can come in and help create that bridge between the devastation of disaster and the family returning to normalcy."

While the food and gas for this particular mission will be paid for by the American Red Cross, all of the Mountain Valley Chapter's operations locally are paid for by local donations and carried out by local volunteers. The chapter covers 14 counties in Utah, and workers say their operations would not be possible without the help of the community.

"We'd love to have help -- help with big letters," Stone said.

Anyone interested in volunteering or donating can call 373-8580 or go to mountainvalley.redcross.org.