Getting Assistance
If you or anyone you know needs disaster-recovery assistance due to a fire, flood or other emergency, please contact the chapter immediately, 24 hours a day, at 1-908-451-7368.

The Colonial Crossroads can help those with disaster-caused emergency needs including food, clothing, a place to stay, emergency medications, counseling and recovery advice and assistance.

All Red Cross assistance is given free-of-charge, an outright gift of the American people, made possible by their generous contributions of time, money and skills.

To see how the Red Cross can help, click here.

Disaster Services and the Red Cross
Each year, the American Red Cross responds to more than 70,000 disasters including house or apartment fires - our most frequent disaster response - as well as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions and other natural and man-made disasters.

The Red Cross is not a government agency, but its authority to provide disaster relief was formalized in 1905 when the Red Cross was chartered by Congress to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." The Charter is not only a grant of power, but also an imposition of duties and obligations to the nation, to disaster victims, and to the people who generously support its work with their donations.

Red Cross disaster relief focuses on meeting people's immediate emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, and health and mental health services to address basic human needs. In addition to these services, the core of Red Cross disaster relief is the assistance given to individuals and families affected by disaster to enable them to resume their normal daily activities independently.