Red Cross volunteer deploying to Houston to assist flood victims

Nearly two feet of rain resulted in devastating floods around the greater Houston metro area last Monday and the American Red Cross is on the ground, providing shelter, meals and comfort to residents forced from their homes.

Red Cross workers opened 13 shelters around Houston on Monday where more than 430 people spent the night. More than three million people live in the region and the Red Cross is deploying more disaster workers and relief supplies to the area to make sure people get the help they need.

Volunteer Pete Zelno of Vestal is traveling to the region to drive an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV).

“This is a very dangerous situation. People were forced out of their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs and we opened 13 shelters to help them,” said Brad Kieserman, vice president, Disaster Services Operations and Logistics for the Red Cross. “We are deploying a substantial amount of workers and relief supplies to the Houston area and we’ll be there for some time helping people recover.”

The Red Cross has responded to three times more large-scale disasters during the first months of 2016 than the previous three years combined along with helping at the scene of hundreds of home fires and other smaller disasters every day.

The Red Cross needs the public’s help now. They can give to Red Cross Disaster Relief to support disasters big and small by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.