It's his years of disaster experience that led to Hall's appointment as the training manager of 2,400 volunteers who assisted in the American Red Cross relief efforts after Hurricane Charley hit the Florida Coast in August.

Hall, a Willow Glen resident, was one of the 34 volunteers the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross sent to supply clothing, shelter, meals and temporary furnishings to hundreds of hurricane evacuees.

In his five decades of service, this hurricane season is one of the worst, he says. After Charley hit in mid-August, hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne landed ashore within six weeks, he says.

"There are more hurricanes right in a row than in at least 20 years," 71-year-old Hall says. "It's like a 1-2-3 punch at Florida."

And like a recurring nightmare for Florida and other southeastern and Gulf Coast states, there is still concern that even more hurricanes may follow, with the official end of hurricane season not until Nov. 30.

While Hall spent most of his three-week assignment conducting orientations on the extent of the disaster and teaching Red Cross workers—who arrived to help from all over the United States—how to use new web-based technology, he did venture out on his day off to survey the damage. Some of the hardest-hit communities were the west side of the state—Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda—he says. Charley also had a dramatic effect inland on Florida agriculture, since it touched 14 counties, he says.

"It seriously damaged everything in its path and made the Red Cross shelters hard to find," Hall says. "It's the kind of thing you don't forget soon."

In some places like in Port Charlotte, the police and fire departments had to operate out of temporary quarters, he says.

Leon Milburn, a 69-year-old Los Gatos resident who was also in Florida with the Red Cross, accompanied Hall on their day off to witness the hurricane's path.

"Some mobile homes were untouched; some looked like they had been turned inside out," Milburn says.

Milburn, a retired IBM employee, has been volunteering with disaster services for 14 years and says he considers Hall his mentor.

"Harry's mere presence provides leadership," he says. "He's quiet and calm, which comes from his education and military background."

Hall is reluctant to say he's a retired Army colonel—serving 28 years in active duty and reserve duty. He is also modest about his Reserve duties coinciding with his position as a school administrator in the Campbell Union High School District until he retired in 1990.

The son of a civil engineer who was laying pipeline in the Middle East, Hall answered a call at his American school in Beirut, Lebanon, to administer first aid to refugees.

"One day a representative from the American Legion came to the American school," he says. "Initially they wanted volunteers for a UNESCO conference, but then international rescue organizations recruited us to take care of injured people."

Hall credits his background in Boy Scouts for motivating him to step up to the task.

The then 17-year-old received training at an American hospital before he volunteered as a paramedic in the refugee camps in Beirut from 1949 to 1950. He dealt with the wounded and even delivered babies when medical personnel were unavailable, Hall says.

"It left quite an impression on me," he says.

When he returned to the United States in 1951 to attend Stanford University and major in international relations, Hall looked up his local Red Cross chapter to volunteer.

Memories of the refugee camps mixed with his appreciation for being an American guided Hall into a lifelong commitment of volunteering and has volunteers like Milburn expressing admiration for all Hall has done. Milburn worked under Hall while training Red Cross caseworkers to use a new systemwide database that enables shelters to share information. This was an important new system during the recent bombardment of hurricanes on Florida. Some Florida residents went to more than one shelter, and some did not want to ask for help at all, Hall says. One of the greatest difficulties aid workers confronted during the disaster was people's reluctance to seek help, he says.

With 35 percent of Florida's population over the age of 65, that made aid more difficult to administer, as older victims of the storm were determined to camp out on their own, Hall says. But within 10 days, many of these individuals changed their minds and came looking for help.

"That mindset makes it really difficult to provide services," Hall says.

And, he adds, the organization also finds itself helping people who are not just victims of a natural disaster but of individuals who prey on them during a hardship.

After a disaster there are people who pretend to be interviewing disaster victims for relief, but in reality are using the opportunity to obtain information for fraudulent purposes, he says.

"When we first got there the number of those types was small," he says, "but now more people are coming in to pretend."

He says a citizen's safeguard is to ask for credentials—a Red Cross identification badge—and to call Red Cross headquarters to verify official volunteers.

According to American Red Cross Director of Marketing and Communications Cynthia Shaw, the number of Red Cross volunteers and staff dispatched to Florida as of Sept. 28 was more than 26,000.

She says, "This is the largest natural disaster relief we've ever done in our history."

Since Hurricane Charley hit the state, the Red Cross has provided 8.1 million meals and provided shelter to approximately 396,000 people in 1,600 shelters throughout the state, Shaw says.

She adds that the costs are soaring with hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne pounding Florida and its neighboring states. Before Hurricane Ivan, the American Red Cross was estimating the disaster's cost to the organization at $67 million, Shaw says.

She adds that of the 268,000 homes affected, 66,000 have been destroyed or sustained major damage.

"We're able to do what we do because of volunteers, corporations and the American public," she says. "We give hope and help people move on."

It's that mission that motivates volunteers like Hall to board planes and fly to disaster areas to assist victims.

"I can see how it helps people, and my wife is happy that it keeps me busy," he says.

To contact the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross for training or donations, call 408.577.1000.