Chicago area Red Cross volunteers ready to help those stranded by Hurricane Ian, some of whom are vacationers
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After Hurricane Ian caused "catastrophic" flooding in parts of Florida, after hitting land Wednesday as a major category 4 storm, some have begun trying to recover from what's tied for the fourth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the state.
Hurricane Ian's winds clocked at 150 mph as it made landfall Wednesday at Cayo Costa, Florida. It left people trapped in homes and wide swaths of the state without power. More than 2.6 million homes and businesses were in the dark as of late Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
Ian has now weakened to a tropical storm, but a hurricane warning has been issued for South Carolina's entire coast as the storm could regain strength and become a hurricane again by Thursday evening.
Meantime, help from Chicago is on the way to Florida, as American Red Cross workers deploy to Florida on Thursday. They are sending experienced disaster workers to southwest Florida to help with recovery and cleanup.
"There's over 33,000 people that are in shelters, the American Red Cross is supporting over 260 shelters in this area, with over 730 volunteers that are on the ground. the Illinois region has sent over 10 volunteers already, with more going today, tomorrow, and the weeks and months to come," said Red Cross Illinois executive director Celena Roldan.
Many of those volunteers from the Chicago area left for Florida on Thursday morning, and will head straight to shelters where they will assist disaster workers already on the ground, to help make sure displaced families have everything they need to get through the days and weeks ahead.
"They are in shelters. They are helping provide food, water; making sure people have a safe place to sleep, clothing, basic necessities," Roldan said.
American Red Cross shelter supervisor Yasmin Clinton spoke to CBS 2's Sabrina Franza on Wednesday, ahead of her two-week deployment to Florida.
"I do it because it is for me, the one time that I feel like that people truly need help," Clinton said.
This will be Clinton's 10th deployment with the American Red Cross. This time, she will be supervising shelters for those who had to flee their homes.
The homes were rendered uninhabitable by Ian's intense storm surge as the slow-moving major Category 4 hurricane has been rocking the southwest part of Florida.
"Make sure they're fed, they have a place to sleep – and then we'll start helping them with their other needs," Clinton said.
Clinton didn't have much notice. But that doesn't mean she isn't prepared – in fact, she had a backpack ready to go on the front porch.
"I do keep that particular backpack packed, and then, you know, I'm ready to go at a moment's notice," she said.
In the five years Clinton has been working with the Red Cross, the motivation and the mission are the same.
"I just really love seeing the faces of the clients when they're ready to go home," she said.
Soon volunteers will be on the road doing disaster assessment, going out into communities to help people understand the damage to their homes, and help them navigate the road to recovery.
Some volunteers are driving emergency response vehicles to deliver resources like water and hot meals.
Home is much farther away for some of the hurricane victims than others. Some had been in Florida on vacation.
"We were supposed to go to Disney and Universal," said Elizabeth Strama of New Carlisle, Indiana. "That just got all canceled."
Strama and her husband were planning to go to Disney World for their 11th anniversary – far, far away from Northern Indiana. They are now sheltering place.
"We woke up this morning, went downstairs, and the lines were outrageous going by the front desk - I'm guessing people either checking out today or coming in and trying to figure out where to go," Strama said.
Strama and her husband sent us video of Disney characters calming kids in the resort lobby – and they reported there were almost two-hour lines to find food in the restaurant. Trees were seen blowing around from their window.
"We're in the middle of selling our house, remodeling it - tons of stuff with that," she said. "Just needed a kind of a break; anniversary getaway."
Right now, Strama and her husband are not allowed to leave their resort until they get the all-clear. Their flight home is supposed to be Monday.
Meantime, Clinton's flight in with the Red Cross was set to take off in the early-morning hours Thursday.
CBS is teaming up with the Red Cross to help the hurricane victims. We have created a website through which you can send donations. Go to CBSNews.com/redcross.
