Salvation Army

Disaster Relief

Established in the United States in 1880, the Salvation Army quickly began cultivating the reputation for providing immediate emergency disaster relief by its response to the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The Salvation Army further established itself as a reputable relief organization by its response to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. By far, the Salvation Army's largest relief operation has been its response to Hurricane Katrina in 2006. That effort secured $400 million in donations, served over 10 million meals, and contributed over 900,000 service hours from Salvation Army personnel and volunteers.

The Salvation Army is federally authorized by the Robert T. Stafford Emergency and Disaster Assistance Act to provide immediate emergency relief and long-term disaster assistance in the United States. The Salvation Army is a mass-care support agency that assists first responders, but is not itself a first responder. The Salvation Army is a prominent, long-standing participant in the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) that is a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Response Framework (NRF) administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The organizational structure of the Salvation Army permits an immediate, independent, local response to incidents while rapidly benefiting from the support of the larger organization and its liaisons with regional first responders, other relief organizations, and federal authorities.

When a disaster relief operation is initiated, the first aim of the Salvation Army is to meet the basic needs of [Page 628]those affected, including both victims and first responders. The programs of response and recovery offered by the Salvation Army include: mobile and congregate feeding and hydration; shelter and reconstruction through the distribution of supplies and coordination of volunteer rebuilding teams; distribution of donated materials and basic commodities; spiritual ministry, counseling, and advocacy; identification and registration of affected persons, including communication of their well-being to concerned family and friends; immediate and long-term financial assistance to victims; services to volunteers of all responding organizations; and facilitation of the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) of amateur ham-radio operators, who serve when traditional communication alternatives are unavailable.

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