LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The American Red Cross played a big part in helping Arkansans after the tornado in March. Since then, they've also been across the country helping in places like Hawaii and Florida
“These disasters are long term, they're going to take a long time,” said Disaster Program Specialist with the Red Cross, Nick Genty.
The Red Cross has had a busy year helping people impacted by hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and tornadoes— One of the tornadoes was even right here in Central Arkansas.
“That's what's so inspirational. We see all these volunteers that have come in and helped us during the March 31 tornadoes,” said Genty.
He explained that because of that, the chapters in our region have been helping other states currently in need.
“We met a lot that were from Washington, we met some from Florida, that came in to help us and in turn, we're going to go and help support when they have a disaster,” Genty described.
Right now, about 54 people from the Arkansas-Missouri Red Cross have been helping in Washington Hawaii, and Florida. Six of them are from our Arkansas chapters.
“We're there to help people find a place to have shelter, have some clothes, some food, talk to them about their mental issues that are going on, because they're facing, you know, the biggest tragedy that they've had in their life, we want to be there for them.,” he explained.
He also said this is the first time in a while that they've seen this many events at once and with hurricane season still underway, they'll continue keeping a close eye.
“We keep an eye on for the storms that are coming in the gulf, we make plans ahead of time, especially for the hurricanes, we have a couple of days advance notice of where that's going to be,” said Genty.
He said they also continue preparing for unexpected natural disasters that they can’t track days out.
“We have to know the people that we can count on that are going to deploy to those different areas,” Genty added.
While a lot of times Red Cross deploys across the nation, Genty explained that they still need volunteers here for situations that happen at home.
“House fires happen every single day and we're always working with volunteers, we're going out and we're working on those offering services and those people that are impacted by house fires,” he said.
Whether it's near or far the Red Cross plans to continue doing what it can.
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