BALTIMORE — All signs point to another major response and recovery effort in Florida as Hurricane Milton moves toward the state, not long after Helene caused widespread damage in several southeast states.
Help is at-the-ready from the Red Cross and its teams from the region, with about a hundred Red Cross volunteers from our region.
"Just after Hurricane Helene, we've already deployed and dispatched about 2,000 trained disaster preparedness volunteers and staff," Lenora Henry, Executive Director for the Red Cross Central Maryland, told WMAR.
Henry called in from a shelter at a high school gymnasium just outside Tampa. Volunteers from Maryland arrived in that area Monday.
"Right now, it's pouring down rain," Henry said on Wednesday afternoon. "The winds are going to kick up later on. It is a scary feeling, to be honest. We're just hunkering down, and we're able to provide meals, food, water, comfort kits to the residents here."
"When families are being pulled up they just drop off their belongings," Henry continued. "The volunteers are collecting them, bringing them inside the shelter, setting up the cots for them. Making sure they have a warm meal, some food. We’re in a gymnasium in a high school, so it’s a very large space that can fit up to 500 people. Just over two weeks ago, they had over 200 people so we’re anticipating to have that same amount of people here tonight."
Henry said just over two weeks ago, the shelter had over 200 people, and it is anticipating the same amount on Wednesday night.
Tony Susi, a volunteer, lives on the Delmarva Peninsula in Lewes, DE, but called into WMAR from Florida's gulf coast at an evacuation shelter north of Fort Myers amid tornado threats.
Over 300 people at Susi's shelter left their homes ahead of the hurricane.
"They're holding up pretty well," Susi told WMAR. "People are pretty stressed, but getting along. There's a number of people that are going to need a little bit more attention than others. We're all sleeping on cots, including all of the staff."
"The goal right now is keep everybody safe and calm, and that's what we're doing," Susi added.
The Red Cross is sending down two more mobile command center vehicles tomorrow morning from Gaithersburg.
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