Thousands of people in North Carolina and South Carolina still face immediate danger from Florence’s devastating river flooding. The American Red Cross is helping across 60,000 square miles of the southeast, a response which could grow as flooding continues in the coming days. See how the threat from this deadly storm is far from over.
BY LAND AND AIR The Red Cross is working around the clock with our partners to help the tens of thousands of people affected by Florence. Hundreds of roads are still impassable, making it difficult to deliver that assistance. But with our partners, we’re doing all we can to get help to where it is most needed.
The National Guard, U.S. Army and Air National Guard are some of the partners which have provided us with high water vehicles, and in some cases, helicopters, to deliver assistance.
A hospital put out an urgent call for blood and flooding cut off a community shelter at Fairmont Middle School in North Carolina. New Hanover Hospital needed the blood and the shelter requested supplies from the Red Cross North Carolina Emergency Operations Center.
The Air National Guard made two flights with Blackhawk helicopters - one to get the relief supplies to the isolated shelter, including food for a one-month-old baby, and a second to get the blood to the hospital.
Military helicopters were also used to transport Red Cross volunteers to support Hurricane Florence relief efforts in the hard hit areas on the southern coast of North Carolina.
The National Guard is also providing much-needed help getting relief supplies to where they are needed. They sent high water vehicles to our disaster warehouses and drove critically needed supplies to shelters in North and South Carolina.
This is a massive relief response and no one group or organization can do it all. The Red Cross is working with dozens of partners to support disaster relief including AmeriCorps NCCC, Church of the Brethren Children’s Disaster Services, Save the Children, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and The Salvation Army.
THIS DISASTER IS NOT OVER Florence poured as much as 10 trillion gallons of water in North Carolina alone. Some rivers have not crested yet and are expected to worsen the flooding situation over the coming weeks. Early estimates show that Florence has already impacted as many as 88,000 homes in North Carolina and South Carolina.
From the start of this response, more than 3,600 Red Cross disaster workers have been on the ground providing shelter, food and comfort to thousands of people right now and more workers are standing by to help in the coming weeks as rivers slowly go down. The Red Cross also has additional shelters ready as more record breaking flooding occurs along multiple rivers in the region.
WHAT THE RED CROSS IS DOING Wednesday night, more than 5,600 people stayed in 73 Red Cross and community shelters. This included approximately 5,200 people in 52 shelters in North Carolina; 300 people in 13 shelters in South Carolina. In total, the Red Cross and other organizations have provided more than 96,000 overnight stays in emergency shelters across the Carolinas and Virginia. The Red Cross has provided 91 percent of these stays.
Working with partners, the Red Cross has served about 300,000 meals and snacks. In partnership with the Southern Baptists, the Red Cross is planning to serve some 100,000 meals per day, which are being prepared in multiple field kitchens.
Volunteer mental health and health services professionals have provided some 9,600 contacts to provide support and care to evacuees. We’ve also distributed more than 3,400 relief items like diapers and comfort kits that contain deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other hygiene items for people forced from their homes. Since September 11, more than 4.7 million weather alerts have been sent through Red Cross apps to help people make lifesaving decisions.
More than 3,600 Red Cross disaster workers from all over the country have mobilized to help shelter, feed and support people affected by Florence during this relief operation. The Red Cross has also mobilized more than 140 emergency response vehicles and more than 110 trailers of equipment and supplies.
PLEASE GIVE BLOOD More than 200 blood drives have been forced to cancel through this week due to Hurricane Florence, resulting in more than 5,400 uncollected blood and platelet donations.
The Red Cross urges people in unaffected areas to make an appointment to give blood or platelets to care for patients in the Southeast and throughout the country. There is a critical need for platelet and type O blood donations. Appointments can be made by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
HOW YOU CAN HELP The Red Cross has launched a massive response to this disaster and depends on financial donations to be able to provide disaster relief immediately. Help people affected by Hurricane Florence by visiting redcross.org, calling 1- 800-RED CROSS or texting the word FLORENCE to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
Donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from this disaster.
The Red Cross honors donor intent. Donors can designate their donation to Hurricane Florence relief efforts by choosing that option when donating on redcross.org or on 1-800-RED CROSS.
CORPORATIONS HELP The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.
ADGP $1 Million members are: Adelson Family Foundation; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Anthem Foundation; Bank of America; Brown & Brown Insurance; Caterpillar Foundation; The Clorox Company; ConocoPhillips; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; Grainger; The Home Depot Foundation; LDS Charities; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; Mazda North American Operations; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; New Balance Foundation and New Balance Athletics; PepsiCo Foundation; State Farm; Verizon; VSP Global; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; and The Walt Disney Company.
ADGP $500,000 members are: 21st Century Fox; Altria Group; AmazonSmile; American Express; Aon; Capital One; CBS Corporation; Cisco Foundation; Citi Foundation; Darden Restaurants, Inc. Foundation; Discover; Edison International; Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation; Ford Motor Company; General Motors; Humble Bundle; IBM Corporation; International Paper; John Deere Foundation; Johnson Controls; LabCorp; Medtronic Foundation; Meijer; Merck Foundation; Mondelēz International Foundation; Nissan; Procter & Gamble Company; PwC; Southwest Airlines; Target; Tata Consultancy Services; TD Ameritrade; The TJX Companies, Inc.; United Airlines; UPS; The USAA Foundation; The Wawa Foundation; and Wells Fargo.
Disaster Responder Program members are: 7-Eleven Cares Foundation; Adobe; AdvoCare International L.P.; Alliance Data; Assurant; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Avangrid Foundation; AXA Equitable Life; The Ball Foundation; Barclays; BMW of North America; Boise Paper; CarMax; Choice Hotels International; Cox Automotive; DICK’S Sporting Goods; Duke Energy; Entergy Corporation; Farmers Insurance; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation, LLC; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; HSBC Bank; Ingersoll Rand Foundation; The J.M. Smucker Company; Land O’Lakes, Inc.; Mastercard; Morgan Stanley; Neiman Marcus Group; Northrop Grumman Corporation; Northwestern Mutual and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation; Prudential Financial; Raytheon Company; Rodan + Fields Prescription for Change Foundation; Ryder; SC Johnson; Southeastern Grocers Home of BI-LO Harveys Winn Dixie; Standard Textile; Stearns Bank; Toyota; U-Haul International; United Technologies Corporation; U.S. Bank; and Visa
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.
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