St. Cloud Red Cross Volunteers Heading to Hurricane Zone

(KNSI) – Volunteers from the St. Cloud area are on their way to help with relief in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

Disaster Action Team member James Carlin, from Sauk Rapids, is driving an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) to Houston, Texas, with Michael Long from Cokato. Carlin says the relief effort has just begun.

“We’re just getting boots on the ground. We’re really getting going right now. We’re being sent to Houston because the closer areas are still very restricted and we aren’t able to move into the real disaster areas just yet.”

He says they’re headed to the area to help distribute food.

“It could possibly be to care for two different shelters or it might be going into actual disaster areas and distributing through the people there. I don’t know yet.”

He expects to get their assignment on Thursday. Some 450 trained Red Cross workers are on the ground now, with hundreds more traveling from all over the country to help.

Local Red Cross Executive Director Linda Blackmore says 23 people from the Minnesota-Dakota Region have been deployed to the disaster zone since Sunday.

“With the help of partners, the Red Cross has already provided more than 7,000 meals and snacks,” said Blackmore. “In the coming days, dozens of Red Cross emergency response vehicles will begin bringing food and relief supplies to people across the region.”

According to Blackmore, Hurricane Ida left behind considerable damage in Louisiana and Mississippi. She says homes and businesses are destroyed. Cell phone service and water and sewer services are down in many areas. Many roads are damaged or blocked, and many communities remain flooded. In some areas, water is chest high, and snakes and alligators have been sighted.

More than a million people are without power as temperatures climb into the 90s. Power companies say it could be weeks before power is fully restored.

Many communities in the region are still recovering from hurricanes Laura and Delta just a year ago. Officials have asked evacuees not to return to their homes until it’s determined to be safe to do so.

This is the second time Carlin has been deployed to a disaster zone. In 2020, he was sent to Oregon to help with the wildfire relief.

The Red Cross is looking for more volunteers. To find out about volunteering with the Red Cross, click here.

___