As Hurricane Sandy continues to move along the East Coast, millions of people could be impacted by the storms wrath. The American Red Cross says Monday more than 3,200 people spent the night in Red Cross Shelters throughout 9 states. But the non-profit organization has developed a new tool to help loved ones stay connected when disaster strikes.
The Greensboro Chapter of the American Red Cross has sent about a dozen volunteers from the Triad to help people along the East Coast and in the snow covered mountains of Western North Carolina. The organization is partnering with Southern Baptist and the Salvation Army to provide food and shelter to thousands of people affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Melanie McDonough, communications director for the American Red Cross office in Greensboro says the organization has a new Hurricane app to help people communicate during the storm.
“What they could do is instead of everybody clogging the phone lines, they can mark using this hurricane app, they can check in either via Facebook and via Twitter, and say hey everyone I’m OK I’ll call you when I can. If you can remember back to 911 and Katrina, cell phones are the always the first thing to get overloaded, so it’s great to have those social networks working for us,” says McDonough.
McDonough says the Red Cross is in need of monetary donations to help meet the growing need for food and shelter. She says the storm is also impacting blood supplies.
“Nearly a hundred Red Cross blood drives have been cancelled and sometimes we try to get them rescheduled but it is hard to get the drives back on the books, especially when it is at a school or business. When you think just in our area, our Carolina’s region, every day we need 1,600 units and right now it looks like we have lost 3,200 blood products, it’s not a good situation to be in,” says McDonough.
For more information visit the Red Cross web site.
