Utah Volunteers Heading To Virginia To Assist During Hurricane Florence

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Volunteers with the American Red Cross based in Utah are heading towards Virginia to be ready to help any victims of Hurricane Florence. Dozens more volunteers in Utah are waiting for assignments, but they anticipate they’ll also be responding to help.

Two volunteers left the Red Cross in Midvale driving an Emergency Response Vehicle. It will be used to help deliver food and supplies to Red Cross shelters after Hurricane Florence hits. The Red Cross anticipates 100,000 people may need emergency shelter.

“We have hundreds of volunteers headed there right now to set up shelters to be prepared, so if the worst case happens we’ve got the capacity and resources to address that,” said Rich Woodruff, director of communications with the American Red Cross.

Nationwide, hundreds of volunteers along with vehicles, equipment and relief supplies are heading to the East.

“I really hope people listen if they’re told to evacuate,” Red Cross volunteer Tina Spencer said.

This will be Spencer’s 28th deployment. She went to Texas last year during Hurricane Harvey, along with 50 other Red Cross volunteers from Utah.

“A lot of times, the Red Cross is the first one people meet, able to talk to, tell their stories to, which is very important for them,” Spencer said.

Each volunteer that is called to go to Hurricane Florence is expected to be there for at least two weeks. When a volunteer is called, they have 24 hours to pack and fly to the area they’ve been asked to go to. Volunteers heading to Florence will be flying out Wednesday and Thursday to get there before the storm makes landfall and impacts airports.

The Red Cross depends on donations to help people in disasters. You can donate by going to redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or by texting FLORENCE to 90999 to make an automatic $10 donation.