Morris residents Sandi and Dan Dransfeldt received a phone call at 11 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2012. Within four hours of that phone call, they were driving to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and would arrive in Newark, N.J., by 10:48 that same evening.

That morning, the Dransfeldts had received a national disaster assignment from the American Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy relief. They packed in just a few hours and rushed to the East Coast.

Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in October 2012. During the storm, winds reached 90 mph in both New York and New Jersey, storm surges were as high as 13 and 14 feet, rain gauges reached measurements of 11 and 12 inches in several areas, and 33 and 34 inches of snow were recorded in neighboring states, according to www.climatecentral.org.