Emergency responders from Minnesota, Dakotas join response to LA wildfires

NINA MOINI: A new wildfire quickly spread through the Hollywood Hills early this morning, as Los Angeles and the surrounding region is still fighting the most destructive fires in the city's history this week. Meteorologists who are forecasting high winds and no rain through the weekend, which is not helpful. Five people have been confirmed dead from the fires. But the county says that death toll is likely higher since the majority of burned neighborhoods have not yet been searched.

It's a story that has emergency responders rushing in from across the nation, including those from Minnesota and Dakota's Red Cross. Brice Johnson is the regional chief executive of the Minnesota and Dakotas Red Cross. He's on the line now to talk about their team's response to this crisis. Brice, thanks for taking the time with us this afternoon.

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

NINA MOINI: I understand the crew that you are sending is in transit right now from the Twin Cities, getting over there. What is the immediate need that they'll be working on when they hit the ground there in LA?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, most of the folks that are going from the Twin Cities are going in a sheltering position. And so obviously, we're still in the immediate response phase of this operation. And so they will be continuing to open shelters and making sure that those communities have safe places to go. A lot of people have evacuated. We may see more people under a mandatory evacuation. And in those cases, we're opening shelters in order to welcome them and make sure they have a safe place.

NINA MOINI: Can you paint a picture of what that work looks like? I'm sure a lot of logistics and planning goes into it. But how are they getting access to toiletries and things that people might need? Are they going to be helping with planning for some of that, how to bring in materials?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, we're in the process right now of moving truckloads of supplies, cots, blankets, water, some of those immediate needs that people have. And those sheltering folks that are on the ground, when we welcome people into the shelter and we go through an intake process, we ask them, what are some of those immediate needs? And usually, with other organizations in the community and vendors, we're able to usually provide those.

So when you think about running out of your house and evacuating, there's a lot of things that you probably don't take with you. Medications, maybe medical supplies, people that have walkers and devices to help them live on a daily basis, those things have to be replaced. And so we try to do that in a timely manner to make sure that they can begin the recovery process as soon as possible.

NINA MOINI: And I think people are just really curious about what you all do. It's very honorable. And I'm curious, do you train specific responders to go and respond in other places they're unfamiliar with? Is that a separate track? Or are you just gathering people who are able to go? How do you select who goes?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, that's a great question. We are training folks in a variety of different positions throughout the year. And through that process, they let us know if they're available to go. They show us their availability. During Hurricane Helene and the work in North Carolina and Florida, we took in a lot of people that raised their hand and said they wanted to help. Some of them went on that response. And some of them just prepared themselves and took the training and are now able to respond in situations like this.

So I think it's one of the things that a lot of people don't understand about the Red Cross is when something happens in another part of the nation, it's all hands on deck here in Minnesota. Our fundraisers are raising money for emergency response. Our volunteers are raising their hand and saying, I'm ready to go. And 90% of our workforce is volunteers. And so it's a throughout-the-year process of them being trained and thinking about when they're going to make themselves available to go on something like this.

NINA MOINI: And would you remind us how many people that you've sent and if they know how long they're going to be there, or is it indefinite?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, a typical deployment for the Red Cross is about two weeks. Right now, from the Twin Cities, we've sent 10 people that have gone just over the last couple of days. That number will continue to grow, and other positions will open up as we move past the sheltering phase. And once the fire is contained, we'll start to do damage assessment.

We'll start to provide financial assistance. We'll start to provide mental health services. All of those are provided by Red Cross volunteers and staff. And so as we start this first couple of weeks of people being on the ground, we'll have a constant flow of people leaving Minnesota and heading to the Los Angeles area.

NINA MOINI: I'm not sure how long you've been with the Red Cross, Brice. But do you find that the Red Cross is responding to perhaps more weather-related or situations that are exacerbated by weather in recent years?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, the climate crisis is really driving more and more disasters. And we look at a graph constantly of billion dollar disasters, and that number has gone up exponentially over the last few years. And so as the Red Cross, we're talking about being in a state of continuous response. We still have people on the ground in North Carolina and Florida and folks responding in New Orleans.

And there's all of these different disasters that are climate-related, they just keep coming. And so we have to position ourselves not only for our local communities, to be able to respond and help out their neighbors, but for the Red Cross to position themselves to work with other organizations to make sure that we're able to respond in a state of continuous response.

NINA MOINI: Thank you for that reminder that even once the story might leave the everyday coverage, people are still recovering months and years after these events. I think that's a really important reminder. As we watch these awful images unfold, a lot of people will be asking how they can help, Minnesotans and others. What can people be doing? What's the most helpful thing that people could be doing right now to help the people impacted in LA?

BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, absolutely. It's a great opportunity, whatever your capacity is. There's obviously a need for financial donations. It's the most efficient way for us to get the appropriate help to those in need. We also need to collect more blood, not only for people that are in this horrible tragedy, but also because the blood drives in the Los Angeles area have been canceled. And so those units that would normally be collected in a large metropolitan area are not being collected now.

And it's an opportunity for people in Minnesota and other places to step up, raise their hand, roll up a sleeve, and donate blood. And it's, again, just another reminder for all of us to make sure that we have an escape plan from our own home, that we know where we're going to meet our family and friends, and to make sure we got things like an emergency kit. And all of those things can be resourced on our website at redcross.org.

NINA MOINI: Great reminders. Thank you for your work and for being here, Brice. I appreciate it.

BRICE JOHNSON: My pleasure.

NINA MOINI: That was Brice Johnson, the chief executive of the Minnesota and Dakotas Red Cross.