DISASTER ONE WHO RESPONDS TO A

BY MIKE CONKLIN

It was Mark Twain who forwarded the idea that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. That’s not true of Mark Steel, a member of Pinnacle Presbyterian and the church’s Deacon Board.

As a certified Red Cross volunteer eligible to work a range of disasters big and small, Mark has answered calls to help bring relief to survivors of some of the country’s worst climate-related tragedies. This includes hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and fires.

The international relief organization has a full menu of volunteer opportunities and, when necessary, provides training for certification. This ranges from food preparation and First Aid to managing blood banks and driving relief vehicles.

Mark, a technology consultant, retired in 2017, and transferred his career work skills–along with a longstanding interest in Ham radio–to the Red Cross. His volunteer specialty is on-the-scene communications, setting up Wi-Fi connections and internet instruction, plus distribution of Red Cross kits.

Keeping everyone in a large disaster scene in touch with each other can be challenging. Assignments often are extremely remote, lasting for a few days to several weeks. Volunteers often stay in tents, dormitories, huts and homes, but communication is vital to everyone’s relief and safety.

“After you qualify, you put yourself up for deployment,” Mark said. “You can go local, regional or national.

Then you wait for a call. You never know what to expect.”

Mark worked Hurricane Fiona last September, an assignment that took him to the Caribbean for two weeks. In this one, Puerto Rico suffered from the worst flooding since 2017’s Hurricane Maria, and an islandwide blackout occurred. A third of the territory’s population was left without water, and at least 25 people died.

The hurricane also hit the Dominican Republic and Bermuda, eventually making it to parts of Canada. “The power got knocked out on this one in Puerto Rico,” he said. “I worked at setting up Wi-Fi.”

Every year the Red Cross answers thousands of calls in the U.S. alone. In 2018, the first major disaster he faced was devastation left by Hurricane Michael, which ripped up Florida’s panhandle and adjacent states.

This Category 5 storm still ranks as one of the worst to reach the U.S. mainland, causing 50 deaths in Florida alone, as well as $18.4 billion in damage. Approximately

2.8 million acres of forest were destroyed.

Mark says he’ll never forget the drive to his base camp near Tallahassee. “It was 15 miles of what had been a forest. Now it was nothing but tree stumps.”

PHOTOS - pg. 20 Hurricane Michael destruction in Panama City. Pg. 21, top-left American Red Cross headquarters at Chico Fairgrounds for Paradise Fire in California; bottom left, Mark Steel; bottom right, FEMA tent at Tallahassee Airport for Hurricane Michael.

MIKE CONKLIN, a member of Pinnacle since 2013 with his wife, Diane, was a long-time Chicago Tribune journalist. He left the Tribune to join the DePaul University faculty, where he taught and helped found its journalism department. Now he teaches part-time, writes, volunteers and hikes a lot.