Local volunteers deployed in Texas, Louisiana and Florida
The American Red Cross is getting ready to respond as powerful Hurricane Irma nears the United States and its territories, while continuing to help people impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
Locally, 83 disaster relief workers from the Western and Central New York Region are providing relief for residents impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Though the rain has stopped falling in Texas and Louisiana, river and bayou flooding continues. In some communities, people are cleaning up their flooded homes. The American Red Cross is there, providing food, shelter and comfort to people affected by the devastating storm.
Hurricane Irma is currently a Category Five storm with winds as high as 180 mph. The storm’s effects are predicted to hit the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico early Wednesday. The Red Cross is getting relief materials and people in place to respond on the islands and from Florida all the way to the mid-Atlantic region. Plans include being ready to shelter more than 120,000 people.
Local Red Cross chapters have commenced deployments to Florida. In Central New York, volunteers John Aldasch of Canastota, Alan Kendall of Central Square and Pamela Monaco of Syracuse are traveling to a Red Cross staging area in Orlando. From the Finger Lakes, James Malburg of Painted Post is heading to the region. In the Southern Tier, plans are underway to deploy volunteers to drive an Emergency Response Vehicle from Endicott to Florida.
The Red Cross has robust disaster response capabilities, which allow the organization to respond to two significant disasters like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma without compromising the assistance we provide to those in need. The disaster response force consists of thousands of trained disaster workers, of whom 94 percent are volunteers.
The Red Cross is using the generous donations from the American people to provide shelter, food, comfort and emergency support. And our work is just beginning – we will use financial donations to help people recover and get back on their feet in the challenging weeks and months ahead.
Visit redcross.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS to donate.
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.