Public Health Community Responds to Hurricane Season

With communities throughout the Gulf Coast facing significant damage from Gustav, Hannah and Ike, APHA joins the public health community in seeking ways to reach out and contribute this hurricane season.   

APHA encourages those wishing to make a financial contribution to hurricane response efforts do so through either the CDC Foundation or the American Red Cross.

The CDC Foundation is seeking donations to provide critical resources for public health teams helping communities devastated by the storms. Contributions to the Foundation’s Emergency Preparedness & Response Fund enable CDC and state and local health officials to obtain supplies, equipment and services needed for hurricane response efforts and to aid hurricane victims and evacuees. CDC has staff on the ground in several states and the CDC Foundation is supporting them and other public health workers in their efforts.

Following Hurricane Katrina, the CDC Foundation’ s Emergency Fund helped state and local health departments purchase prescription medications for hurricane evacuees; buy satellite phones, cell phones and laptop computers to rebuild critical communications systems; and construct health clinics to replace facilities demolished by the storm.

The American Red Cross allows you to help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, including hurricanes, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. This Fund enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disasters. The Red Cross has set up shelters for the tens-of-thousands displaced by Hurricane Gustav in ten states. When citizens are allowed to return home, the Red Cross will be there with meals, snacks, cleaning supplies, toiletries, mental health support and more. In preparation, the organization has begun moving workers into evacuated areas, along with Red Cross emergency response vehicles and mobile kitchens.

For additional information on hurricane response efforts, please visit:

CDC: http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/

FEMA: http://www.fema.gov/media/multimedia/2008/gustav/index.html

To learn more about how to prepare for hurricanes to ensure that you and your loved ones stay safe, please visit APHA’s Get Ready campaign Web site at http://getreadyforflu.blogspot.com/2008/07/hurricane-season-is-here-do-you-have.html.