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Cruz Roja Mexicana volunteers are helping deliver relief supplies and water to people impacted by Hurricane Ian, primarily in Spanish-speaking communities. Their fluency in Spanish is a great help when communicating with some of the residents who have sustained damage and losses because of the storm. “This is our first day here,” Cruz Roja Mexicana volunteer Tania Saldana said of their 14-day deployment. “Three of these trucks, we’re going to send to places to deliver supplies and water.” Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross volunteer Yvonne Lambertson hands out hot meals to people driving through a Red Cross Disaster Aid Station at Mount Hermon Ministries in Fort Myers, FL. Lamberton has been with the Red Cross for two years and is on her 13th deployment, having driven her emergency response vehicle all the way from the Nebraska/Iowa region to serve people in southwest Florida. She volunteers for the Red Cross, who was there to help her after she experienced a home fire. “One of the first things I noticed when I came out of the house was the Red Cross was right there,” she recalled. “I told myself one day, I would not just give back as a donor, but I would put myself into the Red Cross and become a volunteer.” Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Fort Myers Beach resident Jim Wright stands in front of the scattered remains of the home he’s lived in and has been fixing up for the last 12 years. “We drove from Ohio and got here about 6:00 a.m. this morning,” he said. “This corner lot right here was mine. There were about five on this street, and they’re all gone.” He continued: “We had water with Hurricane Charley, about two feet deep, but it didn’t get up on my floor of the house inside, and then Hurricane Irma, we didn’t get any water or real damage then, either – we sure got our share this time.” Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross volunteers load up emergency response vehicles (ERVs) with food and water at the Hertz Arena kitchen location in Estero, FL. More than 125 Red Cross ERVs are on the roads in southwest Florida delivering hot meals to people struggling in areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ian. Alongside our partners, the Red Cross has provided more than a million meals and snacks to members of these communities. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Emergency relief supplies such as comfort kits, trash bags, shovels and cleanup kits are loaded into a box truck for Cruz Roja Mexicana volunteers who are helping deliver relief supplies and water to people impacted by Hurricane Ian, primarily in Spanish-speaking communities. Their fluency in Spanish is a great help when communicating with some of the residents who have sustained damage and losses because of the storm. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross volunteers drive through some of the areas in Fort Myers Beach, FL, that were hit hardest by Hurricane Ian’s devastating winds and storm surge. They took their emergency response vehicle into the community to deliver hot meals to residents who have only just begun their cleanup efforts since being let back on the island last weekend. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross shelter resident transition (SRT) worker Kristy Robertson visits with Daniel Manchester at the Red Cross shelter at the Hertz Arena in Estero, FL. “SRT’s purpose is to help the clients that are in the shelter ttransition into a successful recovery,” Robertson explained. “We look at the barriers that are impacting their recovery, what’s keeping them from getting into that long-term recovery, whether it’s returning home, finding new housing, maybe moving in with family somewhere and finding those barriers and helping them overcome them.” Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross nurse Leah Fairbanks delivers a new walker to Elizabeth Claflin. Claflin and her husband David have been staying in the Red Cross shelter at the Hertz Area in Estero, FL, for more than a week. Trained disaster health services volunteers like Fairbanks are working around the clock to manage medical conditions, care for wounds or injuries and replace prescription medications or other critical medical equipment like canes and wheelchairs. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
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Red Cross volunteer Meg Sheehan comforts 81-year-old Carole Saretzki, a Fort Myers resident who has suffered from the impacts of Hurricane Ian. Saretzki was picking up emergency relief supplies distributed by the Red Cross. More than 167,000 relief items including comfort kits and other supplies have been provided to people in need. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
Hurricane Ian devastated community after community in Florida, leaving thousands of people facing the reality that everything they had is gone, while others take on the monumental task of cleaning up their homes. The American Red Cross is there, providing food, shelter and a shoulder to lean on as Floridians deal with the aftermath of this massive storm.
Early estimates indicate that tens of thousands of homes were affected by Ian and it will be weeks before the full scope of the damage is known. It will take time to reach all of those who need help and relief organizations
involved in the relief efforts are striving to help people who don’t have homes to return to and with the least personal resources.
In addition to helping compile detailed residential damage assessments, Red Cross teams are also connecting with people still in shelters to help them plan for the future and make housing arrangements. This critical information will be used to make plans for what support families may need in the coming weeks and months.
These arrangements will look different for each person. Some people may choose to live with friends or family while they rebuild. Others will move into new apartments. And some will be helped through transitional sheltering or other housing programs offered by government agencies and community organizations.
Ian is a major disaster that no single group or organization can manage on its own. The Red Cross will be part of the solution — but not the only solution — to help families recover.
RED CROSS RESPONSE See one couple’s story here. Since shelters were opened to help people impacted by Hurricane Ian, the Red Cross and our partners have provided almost 27,000 overnight stays for more than 6,600 residents in more than 70 emergency shelters. Thursday night over 1,400 people stayed in 12 shelters.
Most of our shelter residents are about 70 years of age or older; many have complex health challenges and disabilities; and they have lost everything they owned because of Hurricane Ian.
With the help of partners Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and others, mobile kitchens are cooking tens of thousands of hot meals each day. More than 125 Red Cross emergency response vehicles are on the roads delivering these hot meals and relief supplies to people struggling in the hardest hit areas. Red Cross shelters and disaster aid stations are also open where people can either stay or get food, relief supplies and other assistance.
Trained volunteers are also providing health and mental health support to families who have suffered unimaginable loss. This includes help coping with new challenges, managing medical conditions, caring for wounds or injuries, and replacing prescription medications or other critical medical equipment like canes and wheelchairs.
More than 2,100 Red Crossers are supporting these relief efforts. With our partners, we have provided a total of more than one million meals and snacks, and some 167,400 comfort kits and other relief items like cleaning supplies.
HOW TO GET HELP If you need a safe place to stay or a hot meal, find open shelters on redcross.org, the free Red Cross Emergency app or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) and selecting the disaster option. You can also find shelters by following your local county and city officials on social media or monitoring local news.
Anyone who has been affected by the storm is welcome to stop by a shelter to get information, a hot meal, charge their phone, pick up relief supplies and get other essential support. The Red Cross helps anyone in need after a disaster, and everyone is welcome in our shelters. All disaster assistance is free, and we don’t require people to show any kind of identification to enter a shelter — just their name and where they were living before the disaster.
Our workers will do all they can to welcome service animals and domesticated pets comfortably. If you go to a shelter, please bring your own animal crate, supplies, medications and food whenever possible.
Depending on the situation, pets may need to be housed in a different location with support from animal welfare groups. Please consider visiting redrover.org/hurricaneian for additional pet resources.
Report missing loved ones at Missing.FL.gov, and report yourself, or loved ones, as found and safe at Safe.FL.gov. People in Lee and Charlotte counties can find information on emergency roof coverings being provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at BlueRoof.us.
YOU CAN HELP people affected by Hurricane Ian by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS, or texting the word IAN to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Your gift is a commitment to helping people in need, and every single donation matters. Financial donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from this disaster.
CORPORATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS HELP The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.
ADGP $1M Members:
Amazon; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Bank of America; Best Buy; Caterpillar Foundation; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Elevance Health Foundation; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; Lilly Endowment Inc.; Lowe’s Companies, Inc.; McDonald’s Corporation; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; PayPal; PetSmart Charities; The Starbucks Foundation; State Farm; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Truist Foundation; VSP Vision; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; and Wells Fargo.
ADGP $500K Members:
Altria Group; American Express; Aon; Bread Financial; Calmoseptine, Inc.; Capital One; CarMax; Citi Foundation; The Clorox Company; Darden Foundation; Delta Dental; Dollar General; Edison International; Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation; Ford Motor Company Fund; Fox Corporation; General Motors; Google.org The Home Depot Foundation; International Paper; The J.M. Smucker Company; Johnson Controls Foundation; The Kroger Co. Foundation; Liberty Mutual Insurance; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Mastercard; Merck; Mondelēz International Foundation; New Balance Foundation; Organon; PepsiCo Foundation; Salesforce; Southeastern Grocers Gives Foundation & Southeastern Grocers, home of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie; Stanley Black & Decker; Target; The TJX Companies, Inc.; Toyota; United Airlines; UPS; USAA; Visa Foundation; The Walt Disney Company; and The Wawa Foundation.
ADGP $250K Members:
7-Eleven Cares Foundation; Adobe; The AES Corporation; Ameriprise Financial; Assurant; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Avangrid Foundation; Barclays; Big 5 Sporting Goods; CDW; Choice Hotels International; Cisco Foundation; CNA Insurance; The Coca-Cola Company; CSX; The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation; Discover; Duke Energy; Dutch Bros Foundation; Equitable; FirstEnergy Corporation; Gopuff; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation, LLC; HCA Healthcare; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; Kimberly-Clark Corporation; The Kraft Heinz Company Foundation; The Labcorp Charitable Foundation; Lenovo Foundation; LHC Group; Major League Baseball; Marathon Petroleum Foundation, Inc.; Martin Marietta; Mattress Firm; McKesson Foundation; MetLife Foundation; Neiman Marcus Group; NextEra Energy, Inc.; Northrop Grumman; Northwestern Mutual; Old Dominion Freight Line; Pacific Life Foundation; Procter & Gamble; Prudential; Raytheon Technologies; Reckitt; Rodan + Fields Prescription for Change Project, a project of New Venture Fund; Ross Stores Foundation; Ryder System, Inc.; San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; Security Finance’s Lending Hand Foundation; ServiceNow; Southwest Airlines; Tata Consultancy Services; U-Haul International; U.S. Bank Foundation; and Zurich.
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.
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