Today, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers are continuing to actively assist with disaster response efforts in the Houston area.
FWC officers have rescued more than 500 Texans since arriving in the area after being deployed by Governor Scott in response to Texas’ request for emergency assistance. Additionally, more than 400 Florida volunteers have been deployed to Texas and Louisiana as Volunteer Florida continues to coordinate the activities of 11 disaster relief organizations.
FWC Response Efforts:
•More than 500 Texans rescued by FWC officers since arriving in the area after being deployed by Governor Scott in response to Texas’ request for emergency assistance.
•Nearly 125 FWC officers are supporting ongoing search and rescue and disaster response efforts.
•FWC resources deployed to Texas include more than 40 boats, 17 high water vehicles, two Mobile Command Centers, and eight shallow draft vessels.
Florida Volunteer Response Efforts:
•The Salvation Army has 43 volunteers who have served approximately 1,270 volunteer hours so far as well as an Incident Management Team (IMT) on site in Texas.
•The Southern Baptist Convention will deploy more than 50 volunteers to Louisiana tomorrow and will be providing feeding, chainsaw teams, roofing teams, and portable showers.
•The American Red Cross has deployed 24 volunteers to Texas and 40 to Louisiana as well as 11 Emergency Response Vehicles.
•Feeding Florida is working with Feeding America to package, store and deliver food to Texas.
•Volunteer Florida is coordinating with local Pensacola business Two Men and a Truck on a nonperishable item drive. Two Men and a Truck is actively collecting donated items from the local community and has volunteered to use their own storage facility to host all donations until it is` possible to make the trip to Texas. Drivers have also volunteered to use their trucks and time to make the trip.
•Volunteer Florida is also coordinating with national manufacturer Kellogg’s, which has donated 200 trucks of food items, to deploy food items to areas in need.
•Volunteer organizations are asking those wishing to help to donate to a recognized, non-profit organization operating in Texas. A list of agencies may be found at www.nvoad.org[nvoad.org]
