A major part of any disaster relief and recovery effort is disaster assessment, and the Red Cross has a comprehensive system to assess and track damages after all types of disasters. The information gathered ultimately helps the Red Cross determine how to b best assist affected residents, and deploy services appropriately.

“[Disaster assessment teams] are responsible for looking at the big picture of what has happened as a result of this incident, be it a hurricane, a wildfire, or a tornado,” said Greg Tune, lead program manager for Red Cross disaster assessment and geographical information services. “Ultimately, each part of our response is based on the information gathered in the assessment.”

Much of the effectiveness of the relief efforts happening now in Florida is attributable to the disaster assessment efforts that happened in the first few days following the storm. A team of about 30 Red Cross employees, along with numerous volunteers from Florida, began the process of finding exactly where the damage was almost immediately after Charley hit the coast.

Within the first few hours of this or any disaster, teams are already working to gather whatever information they can to begin their evaluation, using everything from radio reports to word-of-mouth accounts from area residents. The process happens in two parts During the first, broader issues are examined, like when and where the incident happened. The second part is more detailed, and involves looking into where the majority of the damage is centered and what kinds of structures have been damaged.

That information is vital—it lets Red Cross and other relief officials know where the damage is located so they can begin their operations in the nearest accessible areas and begin visiting neighborhoods with the most severe damage to offer assistance.

As of this week, disaster assessment teams working in Florida have found more than 12,000 homes to be destroyed as a result of Charley, and nearly 20,000 homes with severe but repairable damage. The first detailed numbers emerged less than a week after the storm hit, thanks to advanced preparation.

“With something like a hurricane, we have some advance time so we can start to put teams in place early,” said Tune. “With [Hurricane Charley] we had people pre-staged in Orlando.”