We have a wonderfully bloggy volunteer named Danelle doing great work to support the needs of people affected by flooding in Atlanta, GA.

The below is a post put together by Danelle – it explains the cool new(ish) gadgets our volunteers use to conduct Disaster Assessment.

Danelle is also posting her volunteer journey on her personal blog. I highly suggest you check it out if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a Red Cross Volunteer.

Beginning to Assess the Widespread Damage

Don and Ruth Krohn are not your typical tech users. Both in their late sixties, technology really isn’t their thing. Today they are out and hitting the streets in Austell, Ga., with handheld computer devices, known as Rapid Data Management Systems (RDMS), to gather damage assessments for the American Red Cross.

In the 11 years the Krohns have been volunteering with the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Red Cross the have been deployed to almost 30 disasters. Their roles vary from disaster to disaster, but this is the first time they have used ‘these high-tech gadgets’ to assist clients.

“At the end of the day is when you can see the results,”says Ruth. “You don’t see all the paperwork. You are done now when you come back in at the end of the day and you don’t have to do any other follow up after the data is sent.”

“It’s a very worth while thing,” adds Don with a chuckle saying how he only wishes that the screen was bigger.

Filed under: Disaster Response, Flickr, Volunteers