The Red Bulletin April 2020

TEAM RUBICON (3), GETTY IMAGES (1)
TEAM RUBICON
RESPONDED TO
310 DISASTERS
ACROSS THE
GLOBE – FROM
THE BAHAMAS
TO YORKSHIRE
– IN 2019 ALONE
Wood says, “but often people’s
vehicles are destroyed, or they’ll be
hesitant to leave their home because
of looters. Half the people we were
treating had horrific crush injuries
and couldn’t walk to a hospital. We
were pushing out into these parts of
the city and treating people on sight.”
On January 23, just 11 days after
the quake, the Haitian government
declared the end of the search-andrescue
phase of the relief operation.
But Wood’s team would stay 20 days,
only leaving when it became clear that
other agencies were better equipped
to deal with the longer-term fallout.
KICKING DISASTERS IN THE TEETH
Wood and McNulty’s experiences had
instilled in them a determination to
keep helping the vulnerable, so Team
Rubicon was formed then and there.
If the relief operation had taught them
one thing, it was that as military
veterans they had much to offer.
In the decade since Haiti, Team
Rubicon has gone from strength to
strength. The organisation responded
to 310 disasters across the globe –
from the Bahamas to Mozambique,
Indonesia to Yorkshire – in 2019 alone.
Today, its staff, whom Team Rubicon
jokingly urges to “Sign up. Get trained.
Kick disasters in the teeth”, has grown
to an estimated 105,000 volunteers;
75 per cent of these are either military
veterans or still in active duty, and
20 per cent are fire, medical or law
enforcement professionals.
Growing the organisation and proving
it was worthy of investment – those
onboard now include Carhartt, Bank
of America and Microsoft – was a long,
slow process. Instrumental to Team
Rubicon’s journey was Hurricane
Sandy, the 2012 disaster that cost 223
lives and caused more than $70 billion
in damage across the Bahamas,
Greater Antilles, US and Canada. The
team set to work clearing houses in
one of the hardest-hit areas, New York
City – an affluent metropolis that was
a stark contrast to Haiti. “We slept in
a warehouse in Brooklyn,” Wood says.
“We could walk up the street, covered
in mud, get an ice-cold beer, and it was
like the hurricane had never hit.”
Despite the home comforts, Team
Rubicon was focused on assisting the
city’s more exposed citizens. “There
was a high population of firefighters
and police officers [in the area we
were working in],” says Wood. “People
who had to put on the uniform every
day and go help someone else while
their home was rotting.” By mucking
out their homes, Wood’s team was
paying back some of this service.
Team Rubicon’s desire to help those
most in need is innate. “We always
direct our aid to the most vulnerable
people, and that doesn’t necessarily
mean where the most damage is,”
says Wood. “We go street by street,
documenting the destruction. This is
then mapped and combined with data
sets like the social vulnerability index,
flood plain levels, crime levels – any
demographic information we can get.
From that, we see who the most
vulnerable people are.”
If Sandy was the event that put
Team Rubicon on the map, 2017’s
Hurricane Harvey tested its abilities.
When Harvey hit Houston, the team
deployed more than 2,000 volunteers
from nine forward operating bases
covering almost 200 miles. As part of
its response, Team Rubicon bought its
own boats and sent them down to fish
survivors from the water. As a result of
the rescue and clear-up operation, it
was responsible for putting more than
1,000 families back in their homes.
Then, in 2019, Hurricane Dorian
hit the Bahamas, becoming one of the
most powerful recorded in the Atlantic
Ocean, with winds peaking at 300kph.
Team Rubicon deployed to the islands
the day after the storm hit.
THE RED BULLETIN 53