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Show RED CROSS YEAR A RELIEFI1E02P,3 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 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 thi: past year. This great program was undertaken following the tornado which struck five raid-western States last spring killing 7D6 people, injuring 2..".3i) 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, car ing for the injured, sheltering and feeding whole communities, aud help ing every individual sufferer from the destruction back to normal. The magnitude of the problem is in dicated by comparison of its huge casualty 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 nunv ber of 192 catastrophles. The story of the Red Cross servict In the past year, recounted by the 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 oa 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 it promptness and effectiveness. Service Serv-ice in this Instance was afforded by Red Cross chapters in the vicinity of he wreck, and by representatives of the national organization. It demonstrates demon-strates graphically the value of eaub of the more than 3,000 chapters o the society which are at work in virtually vir-tually every part of the country, la the facility they afford the national organization in emergencies. There were 61 domestic disaster operations op-erations reported in which the Rod Cross rendered service either through chapter or national staff personnel during the year. In 34 of these the i-.ational organization appropriated & 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 tornado of June, 1924, were brought to a close in May, 1925, after an arrangement had been made with the Lorain chapter chap-ter to provide expert services to the families of any tornado sufferers who required such assistance in the next two years. In this single disaster the relief work, as finally accounted, reached a total of $1,019,751.23. The mid-western tornado of this ear, covering a strip of territory 400 miles long involved an expenditure up to June 30 of $774,000, while tne total amount turned in to the funj through the agency of the Red Cross was $2,645,000. In addition to this sum 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 re-' re-' build, materially and otherwise, and : always on a better scale where pessi-i pessi-i hie. Another significant feature of I these occurrences, as noted in the re-: re-: port of the Red 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 I ail over the country, i 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. What Becomes of Red Cross Sweaters What becomes of the sweaters which the American Red Cross has asked for? In the first place, they are needed for the 30,000 disabled veterans veter-ans still in hospitals this winter, the j garments being in'great demand. The surplus left from the war has been j exhausted since the Armistice, hence j the new call for the sweater-knitters to resume their needles, a call already being met. : The American Red Cross serves In your name: you can make It more effective by adding your name to its membership during the Roll Call, Nov. 11-26. |