Story and photos by Andrea Bredow, Red Cross Volunteer
It was a chilly 17 degrees on Saturday morning, but the cold spring air and piles of snow did not stop the Hastings, Minnesota, community from banding together to fight the looming Mississippi River waters.
An estimated 700 volunteers spent Saturday sandbagging homes along the river. The American Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter volunteers were there as well. The Red Cross feeding vehicle, also know as the ERV, was on hand to provide hot beverages and snacks to keep volunteers warm and energized.
The call for volunteers went out early in the week and hundreds responded with shovel in hand. Family’s worked filling bags, youth groups stood in the “bucket line” delivering sandbags to homes and Scott Webber even showed up on his birthday to help.
“This is what the city of Hastings does. We help each other,” said Webber.
Webber and a hundred other volunteers were sent to surround Lloyd Fanum’s river side home with sandbags. Fanum has lived on the river for 30 years and is always overwhelmed by the communities outpouring of help.
“The boys and girls giving their weekend to help me is overwhelming! I can’t thank them enough,” said Fanum.
The army of volunteers turned out 20,000 sandbags in only four hours!
“When the neighbors are in trouble, we are ready to reach out and help,” said Patrick Walker, one of the sand bagging organizers.
Walker says they are ready to gear up the sandbagging operation at any time. If more homes along the river need help, the Hastings community will be there.
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American Red Cross 
Hello Mr. Tatro,
Thank you for sharing more information about Mr. Fanum and the background on the place where he’s living.
Currently, the Red Cross is not providing financial assistance to those potentially affected by high waters this spring. We are, however, helping to hydrate and feed people who are sand bagging as a part of flood mitigation activities along several river banks around the state.
The Red Cross does not ask people to prove that they own or are legal tenants of a home unless we are issuing funds for some types of direct assistance, such as rent. We do not anticipate issuing those types of assistance in this event, so this is unlikely to be problematic for us in this particular case.
Thank you for your concern. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me: lnyman@redcrosstc.org.
Best regards,
Lynette
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