Volunteer’s Faith in People Restored by Red Cross Duty

Bill Clausen is a believer in the inherent goodness of the human race.

He has proof.

“In times of disaster, organizations and people rise up and do some really remarkable things,” said Clausen, a 62-year-old Huntington Beach resident and American Red Cross volunteer. “It really restores your faith in people.”

Clausen was chairman of Disaster Emergency Services for the Red Cross in Orange County during a three-year period stretching from before the Laguna Beach fires of 1993 past the Leisure World floods of 1995.

He has been a member of the county chapter’s board since 1990, but his recent retirement as a TRW engineer has given him the opportunity for a new career with the Red Cross as a national disaster volunteer. His first assignment was to assist victims of Hurricane Fran in Charlottesville, Va. The Red Cross set up nearly 400 shelters from North Carolina to Virginia in September to provide temporary housing for 31,000 storm victims.

“They took volunteers from all over the country, from all different walks of life, and threw them into the situation very quickly,” he said. “They functioned very well, which amazes me, knowing how hard it can be in the business world to get that to happen.”

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Despite his years of service in Orange County, Clausen started at the bottom on his first national assignment. As a “logistics technician,” he arranged transportation for volunteers, equipment and supplies between disaster sites and Red Cross headquarters.

“We were operating out of a hotel room at first. The first thing I did was to drive 125 miles south to deliver some mail and pick up some mail. After that, I was driving volunteers and equipment up to the northern part of the state.”

Clausen is part of a national network of experienced volunteers who have completed additional Red Cross training. He took about a dozen classes and then submitted an application to the organization’s National Disaster Services Human Resources System.

“The application must be approved by the local chapter. They must agree that you have not only passed the courses but that you have the commitment along with experience in local disasters,” he said. “If you’re approved, you typically go in at the lowest level.”

Clausen first earned his stripes while serving as the Orange County chairman of disaster services during the October 1993 Laguna fire that damaged or destroyed 441 homes and forced the evacuation of 24,000 residents. All but 10 of the 1,300 Red Cross volunteers who assisted fire victims were from the Orange County chapter.

“We activated our emergency operations center here in Santa Ana, and our whole disaster operation was coordinated from that spot. In the first few hours, it was relatively chaotic, but it’s amazing how quickly it came together, mostly because of the preparation. Seeing a big operation like this of about 1,300 people set up in just a few hours was an amazing thing.”

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The county Red Cross had anticipated disaster by securing agreements with hotels, restaurants and other businesses to provide food, shelter, clothing and supplies, Clausen said. Disaster victims are given certificates called “dispersing orders” that can be redeemed at participating businesses for everything from a hotel room to prescription medicine.

“In some cases, if the tools they need to do their jobs are destroyed, we will try to get them in a position where they have what they need to go back to work.

“The anguish is hard to imagine. People who were in terrific shape have suddenly lost everything they own. Their anguish is terrible. But in my experience, most of these people ask less from the Red Cross than we’re willing to provide, which also says something about the basic goodness of people.”

During the record-breaking rainstorms of January 1995, the Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Leisure World in Seal Beach. About 300 residents there, some in wheelchairs, were evacuated after a flood-control channel overflowed into the retirement community.

“It was a new problem for the Red Cross. We had cots, but these people couldn’t get up and down from cots. We had fast food that many of these people’s dietary problems wouldn’t allow them to eat.”

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Relief efforts were coordinated with the nearby Los Alamitos Medical Center, which donated hospital beds and cooked meals for the displaced seniors. Red Cross volunteers also shuttled some Leisure World residents to the hospital, where rooms and showers were made available.

Like Clausen, many the county’s most active Red Cross volunteers are retired. But he said there are many others who selflessly give what little time they have to help victims of the 150 disasters--mostly residential fires--that occur in Orange County in an average year.

“We have one volunteer who donates his vacations every year to national disasters. He waits to take a vacation until there is a national disaster, then he has an arrangement with his company that allows him to go,” Clausen said. “They’re not paying him, but they do give him the flexibility to go. You see just incredible numbers of people like this who just seem to find time somehow. You can’t help but be encouraged about the human race when you see this kind of response. There is hope.”

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Profile: Bill Clausen

Age: 62

Hometown: Decatur, Ill.

Residence: Huntington Beach

Family: Wife, Karen, two grown children and two grandchildren

Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana; MBA from Pepperdine University

Background: Former manager of TRW technology test site in San Clemente; retired in 1995 after 30 years with TRW space and defense sector

Red Cross service: New member of National Disaster Services Human Resource System; Orange County chapter board member since 1990; former Disaster Emergency Services chairman in Orange County

On role of Red Cross: “Giving them a place to stay is really only the beginning of what we do. They probably need something to eat and they’ve probably lost a lot of clothes. We also provide medication if their medication is lost and key household goods. In some cases, if the tools they need to do their jobs are destroyed, we will try to get them in a position where they have what they need to go back to work.”

Source: Bill Clausen; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times

Los Angeles Times