We are working closely with our partners and local officials to ensure help is available when and where people need it most. This is a massive response and one organization cannot do this alone. 

• More than a month after Hurricane Ian devastated large swaths of Florida, hundreds of people remain in shelters and thousands more are depending on the American Red Cross and other organizations for food, water and other support.
• As a first step, Red Cross workers connect with people still in shelters to help them plan for the future and make housing arrangements.
• These arrangements will look different for each person. For example, some people may choose to live with friends or family while they rebuild. Others will move into apartments. And some will be helped through transitional sheltering or other housing programs offered by government agencies and community organizations. Depending on individual circumstances, this may include financial assistance from the Red Cross.
• To support individuals choosing to stay in their homes, mobile kitchens are cooking tens of thousands of hot meals, which Red Cross emergency response vehicles are delivering daily to people struggling in the hardest hit areas.
• Red Cross teams continue door-to-door assessments of homes affected by Hurricane Ian, evaluating each as having minor damage, major damage or destroyed. More than 142,000 assessments have been completed so far. This massive undertaking is one of the largest assessments Red Cross volunteers have ever conducted. Compassionate volunteers are hard at work, averaging nearly 10,000 assessments a day and are committed to completing the work by mid-November.
• Information collected during assessments will guide the Red Cross and other nonprofits and governmental agencies as they begin issuing individual assistance to impacted residents.
• The Red Cross plans to provide financial assistance to people whose homes are determined to be “destroyed” or have sustained “major damage” based on door-to-door assessments of damage.
• We estimate that our outreach to qualified households will begin in mid-November. As we prepare for this, the Red Cross is still focused on ensuring people have a safe place to stay, food to eat, and access to health care and emotional support.
  
• The Red Cross urges individuals in unaffected areas to schedule a blood donation appointment to ensure lifesaving blood remains available for patients in impacted areas.

Relief by the numbers - what the Red Cross has done so far:

• With our partners, provided more than 37,500 overnight stays
• Supported the relief efforts with more than 2,800 Red Cross disaster workers
• With our partners, provided a total of nearly 1,500,000 meals and snacks
• Provided relief supplies to more than 25,000 households

*Numbers are cumulative and represent Red Cross Hurricane Ian response efforts across AL, FL, GA, NC, SC and VA as of October 24, 2022.