HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — As volunteers from the Virginia Office of the American Red Cross continue to return from emergency deployment , more and more are coming home with a special message of hope for Milton and Helene survivors.
One volunteer from the Virginia branch broke down what she saw and what she learned during her deployment to the areas devastated by the storms.
Katie Niehoff, the regional disaster officer for the Virginia region, has been back home for one week after her extended deployment to Tallahassee, Florida ended. She was deployed to the southern state ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Her standard deployment was for two weeks — but, this time, she ended up staying for 17 days.
Niehoff said that, even though she and others have returned home, the road to recovery is a long one.
“When you see what a community has gone through and the damage that they’ve suffered — it’s always hard to not connect yourself to that emotionally,” Niehoff said.