As relief efforts continue in areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, the Red Cross is preparing for possible devastation in Florida by Hurricane Irma.
Dick Dinsdale with the Nebraska-Kansas-SW Iowa Red Cross says efforts are already underway in Caribbean countries that have been impacted by Irma. "The Red Cross is mounting a massive response as Irma heads to the United States, of course we don't know where it's going hit yet. Workers are already hard at work on many island nations."
Dinsdale says with hurricane Harvey and Irma so close together, volunteer resources are spread thin. "We have over 3,000, about 3,100, Red Cross disaster workers on the ground in Texas. An additional 420 are on their way there and 200 volunteers that are helping in Louisiana."
Now with Irma poised to hit Florida this weekend, now more volunteers and supplies will be needed in the southeast. "We just starting to deploy folks to the Florida area and the Carolinas, so that we can have manpower and materials kind of closer to where the hurricane, hurricane Irma that is, might hit."
About 100 volunteers from Nebraska and Kansas are currently in Texas, but Dinsdale says they could soon be sent to Florida. "We are deploying a couple of our emergency response vehicles to the Florida area to get ready for that and we have volunteers there also."
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