More than a dozen American Red Cross volunteers from Iowa are now on duty in several southern states that saw destruction from the powerful winds, heavy rain and flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
Josh Murray, spokesman for the agency’s Nebraska-Iowa region, says they’ve dispatched 15 people to a list of sites were they’re needed the most.
“Some are in Florida, some are going to Macon, Georgia. We sent two on Friday in an emergency response vehicle to Georgia. We have Red Cross folks in South Carolina and Tennessee, all along there,” Murray says. “A lot of areas were hit hard by this storm, and it’ll be a while that they will be in recovery, and we will have folks there supporting them along the way.”
Murray says the Iowa volunteers will be performing a series of valuable tasks while they’re deployed, including those driving the big white emergency response vehicle, or ERV.
“The folks that are taking that will be delivering supplies, delivering meals, checking on folks as they’re trying to start that cleanup process and see what they’re going to need,” Murray says. “We have several who are down there working in shelters — there’s dozens of shelters across the area open — and they’ll be helping those residents pick up the pieces there, give them a safe place to stay, some meals in those shelters.”
Once it’s safe, others will be doing damage assessments in neighborhoods to determine the extent of the storm’s fury and what Red Cross resources will be needed.
“So usually the deployments, when we send folks, they’re gone for about two weeks,” he says, “but we know this disaster response is going to go on for a few months, and it’s not uncommon for our folks to go down there for two weeks, come home for a couple weeks, and head back down.”
The storm’s death toll is expected to top 100, while hundreds of thousands of people remain without power. Murray says there are several ways in which Iowans can help the Red Cross to help storm survivors.
“First of all, obviously, financial donations are huge. They allow us to address needs that are present. They can do that by visiting RedCross.org or by calling 1-800-Red Cross. You can make a donation in either of those locations,” Murray says. “You can also just simply text the word ‘Helene’ to the number 90999, and that’ll make a donation as well.”
The Red Cross deployed more than 45 emergency response vehicles across the southeast with another two dozen ERVs enroute. Murray says some 1,400 agency disaster workers are already helping, with more on the way.