The American Red Cross is ready to provide relief for those who will be severely impacted by Hurricane Milton, which threatens the west coast of Florida with powerful storm surge, winds and flooding.
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00:00Grace, we would like to get an update on the latest on how the American Red Cross is preparing for Milton.
00:06Yes, so for the past week the Red Cross have been providing support for two major storms,
00:11and now as Milton is getting closer, the Red Cross have pre-positioned multiple supplies
00:16to make sure that everything that we need to respond to this storm is available. Not only
00:21have we pre-positioned the workforce, we have pre-positioned water, meals, we've also pre-positioned
00:28blood products to make sure that the hospitals have the supplies that they need.
00:33And a lot of folks at home might be miles away from Florida, or hundreds of miles away from
00:38Florida. How should these folks help? It's very important for people to understand this is a
00:44catastrophic disaster, and any help is needed at this time. So there's three simple ways people
00:50can help. Number one, you can make a financial donation to redcross.org. Number two, if you're
00:56outside of the Florida area, please make an appointment to donate blood. We have to make
01:00sure that we have the inventory that we might need for weeks ahead. And join the Red Cross,
01:05become a volunteer, visit redcross.org, and sign up to be part of this mission, and for you to be
01:11part of what's happening, and providing support to people who need it the most in the hardest of
01:15times. Now you've mentioned that staff and volunteers. How do you mobilize them in a
01:20storm like this, keeping them safe, but also making sure they are able to reach the hardest
01:24hit locations? I think that's the power of the Red Cross, right? We're able to mobilize
01:31volunteers and team members from all over the United States and Puerto Rico as well. I joined
01:36the mission yesterday. I came from Puerto Rico myself to join the team that is going to be
01:42providing support in the shelters. It's going to be distributing meals. And a lot of our volunteers
01:47have been training way before the storm. They take multiple trainings in the task that they're going
01:52to be delivering here. And, you know, they take pride of the work that they do. They are ready
01:58for this type of disasters, whether they are at a shelter providing comfort and a safe place for
02:03people to stay, or whether they're ready to go out when it's safe in emergency response vehicles to
02:09provide meals, and provide water, and provide cleaning kits that are going to be so crucial
02:15once the storm has passed. Now we know your resources, especially after Hellene, maybe a
02:20little bit more wearing, how do you continue to supply the communities through North Carolina,
02:25Tennessee, and now with all this in Florida, how do you stretch those resources? So not only, we
02:31plan ahead. These are things that when we prepare for hurricanes, we plan ahead with our community
02:37partners, with our officials on the ground, and we have a very set plan. Our warehouses are full
02:44of materials that are going to be needed in the days to come. So it's an operation that is well
02:49thought, and the great thing is not only do we have people in the affected areas that have been
02:55here for the past two weeks, we have people that have come here. We have 2,000 volunteers that are
03:01responding within the Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. So we have plenty
03:07of people that are here, more that are coming once the storm has passed. So it's very, it's
03:12very important for people to know we will be here, not now, but now and the weeks to come.
03:19And so for many disasters like this, we talked about people trying to help the Red Cross.
03:24What's the last statement you want to get out to the public?
03:28Visit redcross.org to do a financial donation. You can call 1-800-RED-CROSS. Also, all the help
03:35that you can provide is going to help us save many lives. So thank you for the generosity
03:39of our donors and our volunteers who are here to support this operation.