By Peter Apps

LONDON (Reuters) - 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.

The chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 showed both government and voluntary agencies in developed countries still had much to learn, even from poorer states such as Bangladesh and Mozambique that have become used to disasters.

Some 4,000-5,000 volunteers - almost double the number five years ago - are now ready across Britain to run rest centres, provide basic first aid and counselling, taking on roles they lost after the foundation of the National Health Service.

"You had the nationalisation of the welfare state... and in a sense organisations like the Red Cross lost their way," Young said. "What's happening now is that we are seeing gaps in state provision and the government are saying they want the Red Cross to be a more major player."

That extends beyond disaster relief to helping patients home from hospital, helping fire victims sort out the wreckage of their houses and tackle any pandemic of avian flu by providing volunteers to work in hospitals and nursing homes.

It could be extended further to building greater disaster preparedness, ensuring schools and halls are suitable for rest centres and repositioning supplies - all strategies tried and tested in the developing world.

But the rise in disasters makes the Red Cross's other role - fundraising for foreign crises - harder, he said.

"At the time we raised 5 million pounds for the victims of the UK floods there was also very serious flooding across India, parts of Africa, Asia and China and it was very difficult to raise funds for them," he said. "I think a certain compassion fatigue sets in very quickly."

Visit the British Red Cross website for more information about how the organisation responds to emergencies in Britain.

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