By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Hundreds of American Red Cross volunteers are in
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and even Tennessee, responding to the
destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
The American Red Cross of Missouri and Arkansas
has 43 disaster responders on the ground. Twelve are from the Kansas City and
Northwest Missouri Chapter.
Volunteer Kim Mailes of Neosho is in Clearwater,
Florida, reporting that though Helene left destruction there, she did more
damage as she moved on.
“We have levels of disaster in the Red Cross. A
Level 1 is a home fire. A Level 7 is a Katrina,” Mailes tells KFEQ/St. Joseph
Post in a phone interview. “In North Carolina right now, they’ve got a Level 7
going on. It’s just a 150-year event. It’s just catastrophic.”
Hurricane Helene has cut a 500-mile path of
destruction leaving millions without basic necessities. The death toll has
topped 160 with more expected.
“I think we were fortunate here. I’m not a meteorologist,
but I think we were fortunate here in Florida in that it passed through fairly
quickly,” Mailes says. “That’s not to say there’s not a lot of damage here.
There is. Some areas are just obliterated. But then as the hurricane made its
way up the Eastern Seaboard and into North Carolina, it slowed down and just hovered
and just dumped biblical proportions of rain which is causing tremendous
problems.”
Still, Florida took some very tough losses as
Hurricane Helene began its path of destruction.
“I want to give you an example,” Mailes says. “Yesterday,
I was in Cedar Key, Florida, which is a small town on the coast, about 30 miles
from any nearest town. The town has just really been wiped off the map. They
have no power. They have no food. They have no water and the only grocery store
in town was destroyed completely by the hurricane.”
The American Red Cross has a more than 900
volunteers on the ground, helping with recovery efforts.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
