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DES MOINES, IOWA — Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast Wednesday, but Iowans aren’t waiting to be asked to help. Iowans from across a number of fields are preparing to head into the storm zone while others do their part at home.

LifeServe Blood Center in Des Moines says it has already sent a shipment of red blood cells and platelets to Florida. As in any emergency, types O+ and O- are the most in-demand. LifeServe needs Iowans to help donate blood as Florida area hospitals will need extra supplies.

“If you are a community member in one of the communities that we serve and you are wanting to help the impacted areas of the hurricane, this is one of the ways you can support them,” said Danielle West, the Director of Public Relations at LifeServe Blood Center. “Because we have already sent them products and we are planning on sending more if we can.”

LifeServe is critically low on O+ and O- and need anyone to donate if they can to help out metro hospitals as well. You can sign up to donate blood on LifeServe’s website.

MidAmerican Energy is also dispatching crews to help restore power that is lost during the storm. The company is sending down a total of 80 crew members to fix power lines and keep the energy infrastructure in the south running.

“They said we need extra help and that is where we come in,” said Geoff Greenwood, the Manager of Media Relations at MidAmerican Energy. “We ask our crews, who is willing to go help with this? It’s going to be really long days, you are going to be away from home, away from your families, there is going to be some uncertainties. But nonetheless, we have our line crews and support staff say, ‘Pick me I’ll go,’.”

Those MidAmerican crews met in the Quad Cities on Tuesday night, where they will leave for Georgia on Wednesday morning. Greenwood expects the work to be up in Georgia at first, but after that, it is unknown where those crews will be. It depends on how widespread the hurricane damage is.

The Red Cross of Central Iowa has six people down south right now ready to assist in the recovery efforts. Five of them are in Florida and one is in Puerto Rico. The Red Cross is providing disaster health services and sheltering services.

The Red Cross emphasized that the people down there are trained properly and if anyone wants to be trained to respond to extreme weather events, you can do so on their website. The organization will be sending more people down to help once it is known how widespread the damage is.