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Two years after severe flooding damaged thousands of properties across southern Alberta, the repairs on Chuck Shifflett’s historic High River home are nearly complete. But, like many in the hardest hit regions, Shifflett and his neighbours are still recovering from the disaster. Down his street, four homes were eventually torn down, and just two were rebuilt so far.

The Canadian Red Cross continues to offer a range of programs and services to people affected by the floods in 2013. This includes Red Cross funding for Samaritan’s Purse, Habitat for Humanity, Mennonite Disaster Services and World Renew to help dozens of families in High River and the Calgary area as they rebuild or repair their homes.

Large-scale disasters like the Nepal earthquake last week continue to remind us of the importance of being ready. Canada is not immune to disasters, as we saw with the Alberta floods and the Lac-Mégantic train derailment in 2013.

We mark Emergency Preparedness Week (May 3-9) here in Canada by encouraging everyone to be ready.

As the relief operation continues in areas of central Nepal devastated by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, hundreds of thousands of families face the prospect of another night in the open air, fearful of returning to their homes due to aftershocks.

In this setting, access to drinking water is limited access and there are sanitation challenges to overcome.

The Canadian Red Cross mobile field hospital is now on its way to Nepal, where it will provide medical care to people affected by the recent earthquake. More than 20 Canadian aid workers are being deployed to Nepal to staff the hospital.

Canadian Red Cross delegate Karen Leiva is currently on a mission in Micronesia with the International Federation of Red Cross to assess the damage caused by Typhoon Maysak. It’s considered a silent disaster, as it has gone mostly unnoticed outside of the region and occurred on the heels of another emergency in the Pacific, Cyclone Pam. The Red Cross responds to hundreds of these silent disasters every year. Karen shares some of the challenges of reaching remote communities.

When Canadian Red Cross delegate Nicolas Verdy arrived in Vanuatu shortly after Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, made landfall, he was amazed at the amount of destruction to buildings and vegetation but also at the resiliency of the people.

Thousands of people have been affected after Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, made landfall in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on Friday, March 13. This was the strongest tropical storm to make landfall since Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013. 

The Canadian Red Cross responds to thousands of calls for help every year and most of the people who respond are volunteers, some of whom are newcomers to Canada. These trained volunteers are ready and willing to assist people affected by a disaster whether it's in the middle of the night or as a result of a weather-related emergency.