I just returned to St. Louis from Martinville, Indiana where I was the Client Services Supervisor. As a client services worker, it’s my job to make sure people receive Red Cross assistance after a damage assessment has been completed for their home.
 
To conduct damage assessments, teams of volunteers go to flood-affected areas and assess the flood damage to homes. If they reach a property that is damaged or destroyed, they open a ‘case’ and that’s where volunteers like me step in. If the family is present at the site or Red Cross shelter, casework can begin immediately. 
 
But there are some cases where the homeowners can’t be found. For example, someone could leave town, live with family members in an unaffected area and be unaware of the damage done to their home. In these cases, my outreach team and I would find the missing homeowners. We try three times to contact homeowners and if we can’t get a hold of them, we leave our contact information at the property and wait to hear back.
 
In ten days, we opened up over 600 cases for residents who had severely damaged or destroyed homes. Some of the St. Louis area volunteers that traveled to Indiana with me – Dorothy Staples, LaVon Gilliland, and Don ‘Crow’ Brozovich – are supposed to come home today.