As floods ravage southern Alberta, Vancouver Island volunteers are flying in to give emergency support, the B.C. Red Cross says.

Duncan’s Janice Gallaugher and Victoria’s Hansi Bhagwanani — as well as Lower Mainland resident Terry Mills, who spends his summers on Mayne Island — were deployed Saturday morning.

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All three have disaster-management training and have been assigned to direct field work in the shelters or reception areas, according to the Red Cross. They will be helping victims register and receive food, clothing and services to meet basic needs such as hygiene.

An estimated 75,000 people have been forced from their homes in more than two dozen neighbourhoods along the Bow and Elbow rivers in Calgary. While flows in the city began to ease Saturday, other communities in Alberta were bracing for their own crises.

Two Cormorant helicopters and crew from Comox’s transport and rescue squadron have also been deployed.

Anne Lise Pierce, the Victoria-based manager of disaster-management programs for B.C. and Yukon, said local Red Cross staff switched into emergency-response mode about 3 p.m. Thursday.

“We got notice that not only was the flooding significant, it was very widespread and very severe.”

When reports came in from Canmore, High River and Banff — and they learned that the military had been called in — they knew it was more than seasonal flooding.

“At that point, the call went across the country: Heads up, we need support from the whole organization,” she said.

Pierce described the response strategy as a series of concentric rings: Local volunteers in Alberta immediately got to work. “Right away, B.C. starts to ramp up, then Saskatchewan, then Manitoba,” she said.

While dozens of Red Cross volunteers are working on the ground, hundreds more are giving support remotely. Volunteers in New Brunswick are staffing a call centre, connecting displaced Albertan residents with family and friends who are trying to locate them.

Six others Vancouver Islanders have submitted applications to help out, Pierce said. “I would expect we’ll see more as people negotiate with employers to be relieved from their jobs,” she said.

Each volunteer is required to commit a minimum of two to three weeks to the response. Pierce said the sacrifice from both employers and volunteers does not go unnoticed.

“That’s a huge commitment and it is something we value so much,” she said. “These are local volunteers, not international professionals who do this for a living.”

It won’t be the first disaster for Gallaugher — a Red Cross spokesperson called her a long-time volunteer who also responded to the 2009 Cowichan Valley flood.

The Red Cross is accepting donations for flood victims at redcross.ca or 1-800-418-1111.

asmart@timescolonist.com