LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
More than 1,300 American Red Cross national volunteers were deployed pre land fall for super storm Sandy.
Kristy Bice the Branch Director for the Deep East Texas American Red Cross service area said,
"Our local disaster response team has deployed 22 volunteers in our region and three of those volunteers came from our deep east Texas service area."
Volunteers have been working non stop since Monday night to help victims. Bobbie Ann Anderson from Nacogdoches was sent to New Jersey to work at the command center as a Government Liaison for Red Cross and tells us what she's experiencing there.
"The National Guard is here and has been rescuing people from flooded areas all through the night and continues today. Task force teams from all over the county have arrived. We have mass power outage, telephone lines are down, and even cell phone coverage in most areas is down so communication is hard," Anderson said.
Major disaster declarations have been announced for parts of New York and New Jersey, and resources from all across the country are pouring in to assist. More than 100 emergency response vehicles are being used on the East Coast to provide meals to those affected by sandy.
Claire Tryon, another volunteer from Lufkin, was sent to New York to work at headquarters as the logistics manager. She explained how things have been since Sandy hit the state.
"It's pretty bad. I think we had a couple buildings collapse, trees down, debris everywhere. But we do have our volunteers out in the field assessing it and working with the city and state," Tryon explained.
Volunteers expect storm recovery efforts to be critical, expensive, and long. Monetary donations are welcomed at redcross.org. If you would like to donate locally, you can send it to the Red Cross at 1905 East Denman Avenue in Lufkin.
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