Displaying items by tag: Jim McIntyre

As residents of the Carolinas and surrounding southern states deal with and continue to prepare for Hurricane Dorian, the American Red Cross has mobilized more than 1,900 trained disaster response workers, including 18 from Northeast Ohio. 

As part of their efforts, the Red Cross has deployed 110 Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs), two of which are from Northeast Ohio, and more than 100 tractor trailers packed with relief supplies, including cots, blankets, and 63,000 ready-to-eat meals. 

According to a press release from the Red Cross of Northeast Ohio, on Monday night alone, more than 12,200 people utilized 171 Red Cross and community evacuation shelters in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. "What we're trying to do is make sure that people have a safe place to stay," says Jim McIntyre, Communications and Marketing Director for the American Red Cross, Northeast Ohio Region. Estimates are that as many as 60,000 residents across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas could be impacted by Dorian, that just finished ravishing the Bahamas, leaving at least twenty dead in its path of destruction. 

Find out how you can help those impacted by Hurricane Dorian by visiting RedCross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS, or texting "DORIAN" to 90999. 

On this Thursday edition of the Jasen Sokol Show, Jim McIntyre of the American Red Cross speaks with Jasen on the fatal fire in Kenmore and emergency assistance (00:18), State Representative Thomas West talks about legislation on infant mortality (10:02), and PGA Pro Joe Leenheer offers up some golf tips (17:00).

Update from the Red Cross Northeast Ohio Division: 

The American Red Cross is preparing to assist up to 100,000 people in North and South Carolina and Virginia as Hurricane Florence nears the east coast.

More than 1,600 people spent the night Tuesday in 36 Red Cross and community shelters in South Carolina and North Carolina.

More than 1,500 Red Cross disaster workers are on the ground, including 16 from Northeast Ohio. 14 of the Northeast Ohio workers are volunteers. Most are shelter workers.

Additional Red Cross volunteers from Northeast Ohio are standing by, waiting to be assigned to the disaster relief operation.

Anyone interested in volunteering can visit redcross.org/neo, and click the volunteer tab.

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Northeast Ohio American Red Cross volunteers are heading to North Carolina ahead of what could be one of the most devastating storms to ever hit the Carolinas.

As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of up to 130 miles per hour, with gusts registering up to 140 mph. 

The National Hurricane Center out of Miami has issued Hurricane and Storm Surge Watches Tuesday for the entire East Coast of the Unitest States, as Florence continues on a crash course with North Carolina. The storm is expected to make landfall, as a Category 4 Hurricane some time Thursday night into Friday morning. More than 1,000,000 residents of the East Coast have been told to evacuate. 

Meanwhile, relief efforts are ramping up. Jim McIntyre with the American Red Cross, Northeast Ohio Region, tells our WAKR Newsroom that a group of 9 volunteers are on their way, as of Tuesday afternoon, to North Carolina. "Most volunteers are told to be prepared to be deployed for up to two weeks," McIntyre said, "in order to help provide continuity for the residents who are displaced and may have to hunker down in a shelter." 

As with any storm or natural disaster, a lot of uncertainty as to the exact path Florence will take, but McIntyre says that's what the Red Cross prepares for: "What we're trying to is to be prepared for any eventuality; and our volunteers are trained to be flexible, to fulfill the mission they've signed up for, but also to know that they may be called to do something that they didn't sign up to do." 

Click here to find out more how you can help the American Red Cross.