OCR Text |
Show ear, covering a strrp or territory rm miles long involved an expenditure up to June 30 of J774.000, while the total amount turned in to the fund through the agency of the Red Cross was $2,645,000. In addition to this gum specifically collected for the pur pose, the Red Cross had expended from Its regular reserves $124,000. In all these disasters. Red Cross workers have been impressed by the spirit of determination and hopefulness hopeful-ness shown by the people. Once they recovered from their grief and bewilderment, bewil-derment, they began at once to rebuild, re-build, materially and otherwise, and always on a better scale where possible. possi-ble. Another significant feature of these occurrences, as noted in the report re-port of the Rod Cross, was the promptness prompt-ness with which the local chapters organized emergency relief before help could be received from outside sources. A direct effect of their example ex-ample has been to stimulate disaster relief preparedness among chapters all over the country. The services of the American Red Cross are performed invariably in the name of the American people. On the effectiveness of this representation during the past year, it will launch the ninth annual roll call this year on November 11, to continue until Thanksgiving, November 26, during which support through membersnip will be invited for 1926. BED CROSS YEAR A RELIEMIECORD Huge Relief Work After Midwest Tornado the Greatest in American Annals. DISASTERS DROP IN 1925 Ranged From Fire to Earthquake and Covered Wide Area at Home and Abroad. Virtual completion of the largest peace-time project of post-disaster rehabilitation re-habilitation ever known has been accomplished ac-complished by the American Red Cross in less than a year, as a part of its relief work in the more than 90 disasters in which it served in the past year. . This great program was undertaken following the tornado which struck five mid-western States last spring, killing 796 people, injuring 2,239 more, and causing inestimable property loss. It left a huge area of devastation in its wake, presenting a real problem The Red Cross, however, went to work on the heels of the storm, caring car-ing for the injured, sheltering and feeding whole communities, and help ing every individual sufferer from the destruction back to normal. The magnitude of the problem is indicated in-dicated by comparison of its huge cas ualty list with that of the entire preceding pre-ceding year, whose combined losses were 735 dead and not quite 2,000 injured, in-jured, as a result of the record number num-ber of 192 catastrophies. The story of the Red Cross service In the past year, recounted by the report, re-port, ranges from fires heading the list of destructive forces with 29 disasters, to mine explosions, tornadoes, typhoons, ty-phoons, floods and earthquakes. The Santa Barbara earthquake was among the outstanding events recorded record-ed in the report. The Red Cross had completed its relief organization on the scene within a few hours of the disaster, and in addition had launched a program designed to permanently restore every person affected by it. to his former status once more. The Red Cross service in the period following the wreck of the Navy airship air-ship "Shenandoah" was typical of 1H promptness and effectiveness. Service Serv-ice in this Instance was afforded by Red Cross chapters in the vicinity of the wreck, and by representatives of the national organization. It demonstrates demon-strates graphically the value of each of the more than 3.000 chapters of the society which are at work in virtually vir-tually every part of the country, in the facility they afTord the national organization In emergencies. There were 61 domestic disaster operations op-erations reported in which the Red Cross rendered service either through chapter or national stafT personnel during the year. In 34 of these the rational organization appropriated a total of $3,047,256.49. the greater portion por-tion of which was received as direct contributions for the relief of specified speci-fied disasters. The relief operations following the northern Ohio tornaii of June, 1924. were brought to a close Iti May. 1925. after an arrangement had been made with the Lorain chap ter to provide expert cervices to the families of any tornado sufferers whj required such assistance in the next two years. In this single di?a.Mer the relief work, as flnaiiy accounted, reached a total of $1,019,751.23. The mid-western tornado of this |