Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
RICK HINRICHS: The Red Cross truly has humanitarian value
in the community.
When you have people in need, and you have the
ability to help them.
Simple things-- a cup of coffee, being able to talk to
them, help ease their pain and get their story out.
The '07 wildfires was a wake-up call.
LEONARD VILLARREAL: I got to see firsthand what the
devastation meant to people and the tragedy that people
went through.
The destruction was significant, and the number of
people displaced was truly amazing.
RICK HINRICHS: We had trouble getting shelters up.
We had trouble getting enough people in the right locations
at the right time.
LEONARD VILLARREAL: We were throwing all the resources at
it, but Mother Nature is a tough enemy.
RICK HINRICHS: After the '07 wildfires, we said, what could
have been done better?
And with the new command center using Google Earth,
Google Maps systems, all our resources
are now in the cloud.
I can pull it up on my smartphone or tablet.
The majority of disasters is how to get the resources where
they need to be when they need to be there.
And without Google Maps, you're doing it blindly.
One of the things that Laura works on is giving us a terrain
map so we can see, given where the fire is burning, where
we're going to have to go to create a safe, sheltered
environment to evacuate.
LAURA HORNER: Truly having that common operating picture
that everybody can access, with Google Maps, everybody's
seeing the same information at the same time.
Our volunteers are using technology they already
understand with no additional training, which allows them to
do their jobs much better.
LEONARD VILLARREAL: The bottom line is people.
This is all about people, protecting property,
protecting lives.
RICK HINRICHS: That's what the Red Cross does.