American Red Cross Assists Navy veteran after Home is Destroyed

Red Cross volunteers make a difference in the lives of military families through emergency relief and volunteering

Just after midnight on September 16, 2023, Martha Richardson was sleeping soundly in the upstairs bedroom of her house in Huntington, New York. She was resting to be ready to work an overtime shift the next day — a Saturday — so she could earn extra money to pay tuition for her two kids in college. Unbeknownst to her, an impaired driver in a pickup truck was careening down the road. Suddenly, his truck hit and bounced off two parked cars before flying over a median, heading straight for Martha’s home.

“At first I thought it was a human that hit me because it was so painful,” said Martha, a five-year Navy veteran who has worked for the U.S. government for 20 years. “I jumped up off the bed, took a couple steps back to see who was in the room, and I stepped on something sharp on the floor. The house was engulfed in smoke, and my eyes were just on fire.”

She called her 19-year-old daughter, Mariah. Mariah smartly told her mother to turn on the video function on WhatsApp so that she could see what was happening in the house.

“She said, ‘Turn on the light, mom. Go to the kitchen.’ And I turned on the light like she told me to, and it was just smoke. She said, ‘Don’t move, mom, there’s no steps there!’ And I didn’t see that, she saw that. She said ‘Mom, there’s a truck there!’ She saw the truck before me.”

Martha would later learn that the impaired driver had plowed through the side of her house, taking out the entire staircase to the upper floor. Martha was stuck in her smoke-filled bedroom until firefighters arrived and used a harness to help her escape out a second-story window and down the shingled roof. They explained what had happened and told her that the American Red Cross had already been called to the scene to help her and the other family deal with the aftermath of the accident.

“[The last two weeks have] been a nightmare, but if it wasn’t for the American Red Cross, I wouldn’t have food in my belly,” Martha said. “They pulled in like the U.S. Navy. The people had bookbags, had water, toiletry bags, blankets, and they were so sensitive to what we were dealing with. They checked on me, they took me away from the scene and made sure I was all right. I had Mariah on the phone, and they talked to her, too. They took care of me as if I was their child.”

The Red Cross responds to more than 60,000 disasters every year across the country, providing food, water, comfort and care in the immediate aftermath. For veterans like Martha, there are often additional resources available from a variety of community and government partners. The Red Cross hosts a national hotline for our Hero Care Network, which provides services for military members, veterans, and their families worldwide. Local disaster responders often refer cases to Hero Care Network caseworkers when a veteran or active-duty service member is involved.

In Martha’s case, the Disaster Action Team (DAT) responders on duty, Celia Vollmer and Edras Hidalgo, arrived at the damaged house and got to work. Once they identified Martha as a veteran, they immediately connected her to an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant (and Red Cross volunteer) who helped walk her through the steps she would need to take to get back on her feet and the services available from the military.

“I called [DAT] team member Tim Bulmer to give her a call since he was active-duty armed forces,” said Celia Vollmer, one of the Red Cross DAT responders that night. “He spoke with her several times and gave her resources and guidance. Unbeknownst to us, Tim was deployed to Europe. He made time while he was overseas to offer comfort and reassurance.”

That same night, Red Cross workers with Disaster Health Services and Disaster Mental Health assessed and addressed Martha’s needs. Due to her veteran status, the Red Cross helped her secure a bed in a veterans’ shelter on Long Island for the next couple of days.

Lallita Maharaj, a Hero Care Network caseworker who is part of the Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) team for Greater New York, was also called in to help.

“I called her to make sure she was safe, and started reaching out to our other lines of service and our community partners to see where we could help her,” Lallita said. “All our Disaster Program Managers and caseworkers got involved, each exploring resources to help find her a place to live.”

Martha’s story with the Red Cross continued for several months following the disaster in her home. During her six-month stay at a veterans shelter in Brooklyn, her caseworker, Kurby Velez, worked with her to explore permanent housing options. He was able to help her find something in her budget in the Bronx. Meanwhile, a Greater New York Service to the Armed Forces caseworker continued to explore resources that could help Martha after she found a new place to live. Lallita called a local nonprofit partner that provides services for veterans, which generously donated furnishings for the new apartment — kitchen appliances, bedding, a television, cleaning supplies, a new bed, and much more. Now, Martha eagerly awaits her daughter’s return home from college for the summer and continues to plan her eventual return to living on Long Island.

“Life can change in the blink of an eye,” Lallita said, explaining why she dedicates her time to Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces and the Hero Care Network. “Living from a place of gratitude, I recognize the sacrifice of our service members, veterans and their families. It just fuels my passion to continue to live the Red Cross mission. Since I can’t change what happened, I can try my best as a member of the Red Cross to make the journey to recovery a little easier with the help of all those that support our military.”

This Military Appreciation Month, volunteer with the Red Cross to turn ‘thank you for your service’ into action. Through our Red Cross Hero Care Network, volunteers deliver critical emergency messages for military families separated by deployments, trainings and more. Click here to get involved.