Hours before Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall as a powerful storm, Texans are on the ground and ready to step up to help with recovery efforts.
Red Cross volunteers in North Texas spent Tuesday preparing supplies for those in the path of Hurricane Ian.
Volunteers at their national warehouse in Arlington stocked trucks with cleaning kits that provide buckets, gloves, brushes and trash bags that will be handed out for free.
“We have a network of outstanding people,” said William Morrisey with the Red Cross. “This is what we do.”
Some volunteers from North Texas are already in Florida. Another group is undergoing training before they roll out. Some will staff shelters, while others will drive supplies and food into areas that receive the worst of the storm’s wrath.
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“I don’t think there’s any greater calling in the world than helping your neighbor,” said Alyssa Owens, a disaster program manager with the Red Cross.
Volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief Team are also closely watching the forecast.
Spokesperson John Hall said teams prepared to assist with flood clean-up and tree removal are ready to deploy once the hurricane hits.
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Two crews of volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief Response spent Tuesday preparing to mobilize feeding units in the wake of Ian, together with the capacity to serve 35,000 meals.
“It is a rapidly changing situation. This time yesterday we had nothing ready to go as far as being asked and now we have two," said Director Scottie Stice.
Those volunteers will follow closely on the heels of a group of 45 first responders, deployed by Texas A&M Task Force One at the request of FEMA.
“It’s specifically made up to be water capable. So now, not only is that an urban search and rescue, structural collapse team, but they also have six boats with them, and they do flood and swift water rescue. So all of our people on the team are cross-trained so that they can do all of those activities, sometimes simultaneously," said Director Jeff Saunders.
Currently, they're waiting in the Florida panhandle to see where Ian lands.
"We will be concentrating on the survivors and making sure that they're taken to a safe place and moved out of harm's way," said Saunders.
Florida is under a state of emergency as it braces for a Category 4 hurricane.
The Dandar family boarded one of the last flights out of Tampa International Airport before it suspended flights. They arrived in DFW Tuesday to be with their family.
“We have never left our home like we did for this one,” said Kennan Dandar. “The thing that really frightens us the most is this surge they are talking about.”
Tampa and Dandars' hometown of St. Petersburg could take its first direct hit from a hurricane since 1921. Double-digit storm surge is forecast.
“It’s unnerving,” said Dandar. “We’re safe and that’s number one and we’ll just keep praying that things go well.”
Click here to support disaster relief efforts from Hurricane Ian and make a donation to the American Red Cross.
