‘It’s an all hands on deck type of response’: Red Cross of WNY providing relief after Helene

BUFFALO, NY (WIVB) — Several communities in the southeast of the United States continue to be left submerged, or left in ruins. Hurricane Helene brought flooding and damaging conditions, took roads, homes, and more than 130 people’s lives, and hundreds are still missing.

More than 1,400 Red Cross Responders, including 12 from Western New York, are being deployed to help provide life-saving resources to communities left in destruction from Helene’s path.

“It’s an all hands on deck type of response throughout the entire country,” said Nick Bond, the CEO of Red Cross of Western New York.

The Red Cross has partnered to set up 70 shelters and Bond says right now they are focusing on helping survivors with health, hunger and housing.

Residents line up for food and water in storm-battered North Carolina mountains

“What we see sometimes is people don’t want to leave their homes. Even though there’s nothing really left, what they do have left, they don’t want to lose,” said Bond. “What we do as an organization is we will deploy our emergency response vehicles, think of a big food truck, and we will take these vehicles and enter into communities that have been impacted and we will provide food right to those individuals.”

He says they have 60 emergency vehicles, including three from Western New York, that are active to help people.

They say one of the hardest hit areas that they’re helping is North Carolina. Some areas were cut off due to flooding and some areas haven’t had cell service since Friday. Government aid has been trying to deliver supplies by air, truck and mule.

Biden to survey Helene’s devastation in North Carolina as death toll climbs

The Red Cross says their organization has staff that’s always keeping their eyes and monitoring the weather and planning where to provide resources along a storms predicted path ahead of time, to provide relief as soon as they can.

“When we see a weather pattern like this approaching, we pre-position volunteers and resources along the storm path to make sure we have the ability to respond right away,” said Bond, “Making sure we have volunteers and resources pre-deployed because sometimes, travel is impacted by a storm of this magnitude, so making sure that we’re in spaces that are safe but also places that we can provide resources and comfort care.”

They say that they plan to help for months, and if people would like to help, people can donate, or people can sign up to become a volunteer with Red Cross. To find out more information click their website here.

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Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

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