Dan Feldner/MDN • Bob Johnstad, a volunteer with the Mid-Dakota Chapter of the American Red Cross, stands next to the emergency response vehicle he took to Fargo Tuesday evening. Johnstad and William Horton will be giving meals to flood relief volunteers in Fargo.

When the American Red Cross asks its volunteers to be ready to help in a moment’s notice, they’re not kidding around. The Mid-Dakota Chapter of the American Red Cross in Minot got the call at 3 p.m. Tuesday to help with flood relief efforts in Fargo, and three hours later volunteers Bob Johnstad and William Horton were on the road in emergency response vehicle 2141. Susan Ewert, coordinator of emergency/volunteer services, said the timing of the call was fortunate because one of the volunteers happened to be in the Red Cross office at the time. “Luckily one of the volunteers had just come into my office maybe two hours before that and said that he was available to go if we needed it,” Ewert said. “So I put him on my list. He was just down in the back room and I got the call, and I sprinted down there and said, ‘William, are you going to volunteer to go in three hours?’ And he went, ‘Oh, OK.’ So he was all for it.