Area Red Cross explains how to help Hurricane Ian relief efforts

The regional American Red Cross in Northern Illinois is doing its part to assist people in Southwest Florida who suffered devastating losses due to Hurricane Ian.

The American Red Cross said it responds to an emergency every eight minutes and more than 60,000 disasters a year.

Brian McDaniel, executive director of the American Red Cross Illinois River Valley chapter, said on Friday that seven of the region’s nine emergency vehicles are already in Florida or en route and that 100 emergency vehicles total from Illinois are responding.

“These are vehicles that take food into the areas affected to make sure people have warm meals and hydration and things of that regard,” McDaniel said.

In addition, 730 trained Red Cross volunteers across the U.S. are onsite now. Forty of these volunteers are from Illinois, with four from the Illinois River Valley chapter currently deployed and four who are on standby, McDaniel said.

The number of volunteers will eventually increase to more than 3,000 who will shelter people and distribute supplies, he said.

Volunteers are typically deployed for two weeks at a time, McDaniel said. So more volunteers will be needed two weeks later, he added.

“This is going to be a long event,” McDaniel said. “We don’t send everyone out on the first day.”

So how can people locally help?

“If you’re able to do donate – that’s great,” McDaniel said. “If you’re able to give blood – even better. And if you’re able to volunteer to be part of the team, that would be outstanding.”

McDaniel said donating financially is the best way to help. Those donations help provide food, shelter and other support to those in need.

Shipping out actual material items, such as food, clothing and household items, isn’t the best way to help due to health codes and the need for volunteers to sort through those items instead of directly supporting people with relief supplies, McDaniel said.

Furthermore, it takes time and money to store items, which is not optimal use of resources, he added.

“If local businesses want to get something to their customers to support our work, we can make a connection with our team to that effort,” McDaniel said.

The second need is for blood to backfill any shortages in affected areas due to cancelation of blood drives, McDaniel said.

Finally the American Red Cross needs volunteers to respond to local emergencies now that local volunteers are deployed, Mc Daniel said.

“You can support the team locally while we’re doing the big stuff,” McDaniel said. “And then you can train to be part of the big stuff.”

To donate financially, donate blood or volunteer, visit redcross.org.