DES MOINES, Iowa — The death toll of Hurricane Helene has climbed into the hundreds. The storm battered parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Now, the Red Cross is stepping up to help victims of the storm and has deployed 15 Iowans to impacted regions.
After disasters like Helene, the Red Cross says the first step is addressing the immediate needs of the people in the affected areas. Currently, the Red Cross has 69 shelters open in states impacted. The volunteers from Iowa will be helping man those shelters, providing food, water, and medical supplies to those in need.
Why you’ll no longer be seeing “Wind Chill Warnings” in the winter
“Oftentimes we will have people of various levels of disabilities come into the shelters needing medical support and we do deploy healthcare workers like nurses, P.A.s, and physicians who might be on a sabbatical or retired to help those kinds of medical needs,” said Emily Holley, Regional Communications Director of the Nebraska-Iowa Red Cross.