Faced with increased flooding at home due to climate change, terror attacks and the threat of bird flu, Britain's Red Cross is moving beyond raising funds for overseas aid work to tackling domestic disasters.
When a flash flood devastated the Cornish town of Boscastle in 2004, officials at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva were underwhelmed by the British Red Cross response - a handful of volunteers and support for local council fundraising.
"In the last five years, we've had terror attacks in London, climate change - particularly flooding - and we have scaled up operations," British Red Cross chief executive Nick Young told Reuters in an interview.
"We have scaled up volunteers, equipment - particularly ambulances - and rescue boats and vehicles." Parked outside the organisation's headquarters in London's financial district is a white disaster response Red Cross Land Rover, more at home in an African or Asian disaster.
The Red Cross has also bought a giant off-road Unimog truck to drive through floods, which was used to deliver essential supplies when the town of Gloucester was inundated last year.
"We have a team who, when there is a disaster overseas, go out fast to help run supply operations," he said. "We'd never used it before in the UK but we did in the floods last year." Globally, the Red Cross says it is seeing more and more disasters linked to climate change - an increase from 200 to 500 a year in three years.