BRACING FOR FLORENCE
Local Red Cross workers head to Carolinas
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Local residents are among the hundreds of American Red Cross personnel headed South to help victims of Hurricane Florence, which is expected to slam the Carolinas on Thursday.
Kevin Coffey of Saratoga Springs and Josh Moskowitz of Schuylerville departed Albany International Airport on Wednesday, joining others that began arriving earlier this week.
The Category 3 storm is expected to bring catastrophic flooding and life-threatening tidal surges to the region.
“This is such a large-scale effort, more than 1,500 disaster workers from throughout the U.S. are there or en route,” said Kimmy Venter, Red Cross Eastern New York Region spokesperson. “It’s really like a national operation. Most volunteers, just like evacuees, will be staying in shelters.”
Three dozen shelters have already been set up in North and South Carolina to assist more than 100,000 people fleeing the storm, which one federal official described as “a Mike Tyson punch to the Carolina coast.”
Plans called for opening dozens more evacuation centers on Wednesday.
Coffey and Moskowitz are Red Cross staffers.
“Kevin, our local chief development officer, and is headed to South Carolina to lead fund-raising efforts there,” Venter said. “Josh is our local disaster program manager. He’s headed to North Carolina to help run shelter operations on a large scale.”
Coffey’s wife, Jennifer, said, “I’m concerned for his safety, but I know he’s doing really important work and will help a lot of people and many communities. He’ll be coordinating telethons and working with disaster operations teams. I’m really proud of him and so are our three young children. They think his job is very cool. They’ll miss him, but they certainly understand why he’s going and how important it is.”
The Red Cross Eastern New York Region encompasses 24 counties from the Mid-Hudson Valley north to the Canadian border and west to the Utica and Watertown area.
In addition to full-time personnel, about two dozen trained volunteers from the region are helping with relief efforts. Most will work in shelters, where they’ll set up cots, serve meals or simply talk to people who need a friend to lean on.
However, personnel with medical and mental health backgrounds are also needed.
Volunteers typically deploy for two weeks.
Last August, about 60 area people attended a Red Cross rapid-deployment boot camp, in Glen Falls, to become trained for shelter work in hurricane-ravaged Houston.
Venter said most people headed to the Carolinas and Virginia have some prior disaster response experience.
There are no plans to train new, inexperienced volunteers for Hurricane Florence, she said.
However, Red Cross says its response might cover up to 11 states as the storm heads inland, dumping huge amounts of rain, which will likely trigger ravaging floodwaters.
In addition to Red Cross workers, 80 emergency response vehicles and more than 120 trailers of equipment and relief supplies have been deployed so far. As the storm passes, Red Cross is preparing to provide shelter for tens of thousands of people until they can return home or find other places to stay.
Some evacuation centers may not have cots, food, running water or electricity. They are meant to safely house people for about 72 hours until the storm passes and weather conditions improve.
If needed, local government officials may transition evacuation centers into emergency shelters if residents can’t return home after the storm.
Red Cross encourages eligible blood donors in parts of the country unaffected by the storm to give blood or platelets to help ensure a sufficient supply. Platelet and type O positive blood donations are critically needed because an estimated 1,445 donations will be cancelled by the storm.
Hurricane Florence has already forced the cancellation of many Southeast blood drives and additional cancellations are expected in coming days because of poor weather conditions.
Blood donation appointments can be made by using the Red Cross Blood Donor app, going to the website: redcrossblood. org, or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).