CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Several Southwest Florida Red Cross volunteers are on the ground in Louisiana and Texas, helping those impacted by Hurricane Laura.
The devastating Category 4 hurricane left behind a path of destruction and is blamed for over a dozen deaths after making landfall last week.
One of the local Red Cross volunteers currently helping provide relief is Gaenor Speed from Cape Coral.
Speed has been part of the Florida Gulf Coast to Heartland Chapter since 2016 and is no stranger to responding when mother nature strikes.
"I've been to floods and fires," said Speed.
One of her previous deployments was to Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017.
"I was sent down there in the recovery team and we gave out generators all over the island for people who needed them for health reasons," said Speed.
Currently, the Red Cross is mobilizing disaster workers, emergency vehicles, and relief supplies to help those impacted by this massive storm in the Gulf Coast.
"What is happening now is that the vehicles are going out to assess the damage, and then sending that information back, so that the other volunteers can take food to all of those affected areas, and also supplies," said Speed.
Speed is deployed in New Orleans, Louisiana, providing support at a shelter for other Red Cross volunteers.
"What we’re doing is making sure they have a safe place to stay at night, we make sure they’re warm if they want snacks or coffee we provide that for them," said Speed.
Many of the volunteers in the shelter are going out to assess heavily devastated areas.
"They don't say a whole lot, just that it's very sad, very devastated, they're probably not ready to talk about it," said Speed.
Since arriving there last week, Speed has also worked with those impacted by the hurricane.
"They're pretty philosophical about it all because they've been through it all before, which is a bit sad," said Speed.
But the pandemic has added obstacles, with thousands of people taking refuge in shelters and, even, hotels.
"We ask the clients COVID questions, temperatures are taken regularly," said Speed.
Speed says volunteers are also taking precautions by wearing masks and limiting two volunteers per vehicle when they go do damage assessments.
Speed plans to be boots on the ground for another week, working 10 hour days.
"We're here to serve the Red Cross, to serve the clients, to make them as comfortable as possible," said Speed.
The Red Cross says people at home can help by texting Laura to 90999 to make a 10 dollar donation or call 1-800-Red-Cross.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities, click here.
