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Show , HALF MILLION PEOPLE AIDED BY RED CROSS IN HURRICANE BELIEF Porto Rico and Florida Victims Helped by Prompt Action; $5,000,000 Given by Public. One of the greatest disasters. In point of loss of life and devastation of homes, in which the American Red Cross has ever carried relief was ilia West Indle3 hurricane of September last, wnich swept across Porto Rico, parts of the Virgin Islands, the coast of Florida and north to end in torrential tor-rential rains, flooding streams In a half dozen states. The known dead In all of the areas affected was 2,2.9. although it was admitted that the complete total of dead In Florida . would never be known. The number of injured was estimated at 3.170. Approximately Ap-proximately 20,000 buildings were destroyed de-stroyed and damaged. At the height of the'emergency the Red Cross was caring for 50G.410 peoplethat peo-plethat is. feeding and clothing them and arranging for whatever shelter was obtainable. As long as three weelis after the hurricane struck Porto Rico and Florida, the Red Cross was aiding 20,236 people who were sick, of these 236 in Florida and the remainder In Porto Rico, where influenza and malaria were be- i ing treated to prevent epidemics of ' more drastic diseases. Large num- i bers of Red Cross nurses were activs ! at both points. In Florida more than 1.1.000 persons j applied to Red Cross for assistance, and a great number of people In Flori- i da and also In Porto Rico stil wsrs being cared for in the matter of food, clothing and shelter as long as two months after the hurricane, Thils they awaited maturing crops which would enable them to again becoms self sustaining. For this relief task, the American public gave the American Red Cross a fund of $5,000,000 the sum set forth In a proclamation Issued by President Coolidge a few days after news of the hurricane was received The relief given by the Red Cross in this great emergency, spread over i such a wide territory of sea and land, j was everywhere commended and es-I es-I pecial emphasis was placed upon tha promtitude with which the organization organiza-tion responded. Th hurricane struck Porto Rico September 13, and tha first brief cabled word of It cama September 14, to both Red Cross and the news agencies. Before nightfall, the national director of disaster relief re-lief for the Red Cross and a staff of four trained men had left Washington for Charleston, South Carolina, to board a navy destroyer which upon instruction of the President of tha United States had been placed at I command of the Red Cross by the Secretary of the Navy. And although the next day was Sunday, a Red Cross man arrived In New York to purchase a thousand tons of food for the Porto Ricans, already reported to be starving, starv-ing, and the Navy again placed a ship for the cargo ,.t Red Cross command. Late on Sa rdar evening there came another cab. a .ed Cross nurse at St. Croix, in thu Virgin Islands, addressed ad-dressed a p'ea to the mother organization organi-zation in V.'ashington and gave first warning of the plight of the people of the American possession, where no family in a population of 11,000 had escaped injury. In the meantime the Red Cross had notified i'.s Florida Chapters that it stood ready for any service, in event the hurricane, headed toward them, did any damage. Not content with this, the Re Cros3 on Sunday night entrained a disaster relief director and six workers for Florida. Money, food, clothing were dispatched dis-patched immediately to both points, and before the end of the week the Red Cr-!ss was feeding a half million people. This prompt response was made possible "by the disasteT relieT organisation organi-sation the Red Cross has brought together to-gether and trained through a series of such national calamities. Support of this work Is through the annual Roll Call for memberships. The goal in the twelfth annual Roll Call to be- held Armistice Day to Thanksgiving Day, November 11 to 29. is 5,000,000 members. |