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Plan for Disaster

Accession number: 
1950.0050
Production Years: 
1950

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (minutes): 
17
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 35mm, VHS, Digibeta.
"Sponsored documentary about the role of the Canadian Red Cross in helping Canadians cope with disasters such as fires and floods. It begins with a montage of people at work in various occupations such as lumberjacks and miners. It then shows various disaster scenes such as a twister; damaged buildings; buildings with roofs missing; buildings on fire; toppled power lines; tree on fire; train crash and floods. Scenes of flooding in a city (probably Winnipeg circa 1950) showing Dunkirk Drive and a horse-drawn wagon moving down a water-covered street; a ship in stormy waters; fire trucks at the scene of a fire and the S.S. Noronic, which caught fire. A map shows the location of Red Cross branches across Canada. Also shown are Red Cross volunteers wearing Red Cross armbands as the voiceover explains the role of the Red Cross in organizing and coordinating volunteers. Members of the Disaster Services Committee shown in a meeting. Red Cross workers with blood supplies. Close-up of headline of "The Winnipeg Tribune" newspaper during the flood (apparently 1950) as the narrator talks about the importance of the work of the Red Cross in keeping communication open when disaster strikes; still photographers and newsreel cameramen; quick shot of a radio announcer at a microphone (no actuality audio); aerial view of a flood; closer view of flooded street showing building with sign on it that reads "Morley Grocery"; people filling sandbags and women wearing Red Cross armbands bring them something to drink; Red Cross volunteers helping various people during flood; two young men shown sitting on porch roof to escape floodwaters; volunteers at headquarters taking phone calls; collecting, sorting and distributing clothing; nurses and other Red Cross workers helping to evacuate a hospital and comfort the inujred; Red Cross workers carrying blood for blood transfusions onto a Trans-Canada Airlines plane; workers loading supplies onto a plane; train with Red Cross sign on it; scenes of fires and the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb."