The American Red Cross has landed in Southern California providing shelter and relief for the wildfires victims in the region. Betsy Robertson speaks on the non-profit organization's efforts.
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00:00In every natural disaster, it's the American Red Cross that quickly arrives and sets up
00:04to help. Right now, they are on the ground in Los Angeles to help victims of the wildfires.
00:09Betsy Robertson is the national spokesperson for the American Red Cross. Good morning,
00:14Betsy. I know you are working for the Red Cross, and you're at a shelter right now.
00:18Can you tell us how many people have been staying there overnight?
00:22Sure. I'm at the Westwood Recreation Center in Los Angeles. It's not far from the UCLA campus,
00:27and this shelter has hosted around 200 people overnight all week long. These are residents who
00:34are not sure if they have homes to go home to. Some know they don't. Others have just been
00:40waiting for evacuation orders to be lifted, and so we are just here making sure that their
00:45immediate needs are being taken care of. That's got to be so hard, the unknown part of it, too,
00:50whether or not your home is still standing. And with so many that know they have lost their homes
00:54and so much more inside their homes, what kind of help is the Red Cross able to provide?
01:00So right now, we're continuing to just make sure people have a safe place to go,
01:03that they are not experiencing this tragedy alone, regardless of their resources. So
01:08continue to have a place to stay, shower, get fed, talk to health volunteers,
01:16talk to someone about their mental health. Also, at a lot of our shelters, we have now FEMA and
01:21other partners set up along here with us, having those conversations with folks about
01:27their current status and what their next steps might be.
01:31What are the Red Cross's plans for the next few days, since obviously the fires are not put out
01:36and there are still some threats? What will people be needing there?
01:40Yeah, so we're going to continue sheltering as long as it's needed. There is talk about some
01:46evacuation orders being lifted, so some of that population may start to go home. We really want
01:52to caution people if they're going to go back into a zone that was and experienced the fire,
01:58that they are, of course, following orders from local officials, but also taking extra caution
02:02because it's still very dangerous. There could be hot spots. There could be other contaminants there
02:07that we just don't want folks to be exposed to. So just know that the shelter is going to be here
02:12as long as it's needed, and the future remains to be seen. Exactly what the timeline will be,
02:20but the Red Cross is going to be here with our teams of volunteers and all of the compassion
02:25that they have to give, as long as we need to be. All right, well then, how can people help
02:29all the great work that the Red Cross is doing? First of all, you can go to RedCross.org and find
02:36out about how you can make a donation to this event and disasters that may be happening in
02:41your own backyard. You can find out about how to become a volunteer. Again, the people who are here
02:46wearing these red vests are people who signed up in their local communities. They took the training,
02:51and then they raised their hands when there was a tremendous need, and they got on planes to come
02:55here. So becoming a volunteer, finding a way to contribute to your local chapter, as well as this
03:01major event that's happening in Southern California, we welcome all of your support. You can
03:06go to RedCross.org to learn more about that. Betsy Robertson, National Spokesperson for the
03:12American Red Cross, thank you again for joining us on Accuweather Early. Thank you so much.