With Covid-19 the mission of the American Red Cross to alleviate human suffering caused by disasters has not changed, just the way we do it.  These changes include mandatory screening, more space per cot to promote social distancing, new methods of feeding, smaller sheltering teams, and much, much more.  The American Red Cross has put together a 45 minute video presentation available to anyone through YouTube that showcases this new sheltering doctrine.  We are recommending that you share this with your employees and CERT members so they can get up to speed on how the ARC recommends shelters to be set up and run.  It could take the ARC several days to muster resources from outside the region to take over shelter operations, which may initially need to be set up and run by local government jurisdictions.

You can access the “Covid-19 Shelter Training for ARC Partners” through the following link.  Note that you’ll initially be taken to a simple registration page before getting the link to the actually video.  The registration link is: registration form

If members of your team have not taken Shelter Fundamentals yet then it is recommended that they take this and two additional training classes, all of which are also available on YouTube.  Links to these 3 classes, which include Shelter Fundamentals, a short Sheltering in a Covid-19 Environment video, and a short video on Covid-19 Shelter Assignments, can be found on page 48 of the “Covid-19 Shelter Training for ARC Partners”.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.”

Best regards,
Jim

Jim Mollerus 
American Red Cross Volunteer 
Silicon Valley Chapter Mass Care Coordinator 
650-224-3580  
Jim.Mollerus@redcross.org