Local Red Cross volunteers ready to assist ahead of potential hurricane threat

As Tropical Storm Ian threatens Florida's west coast and a hurricane threat looms closer, local first responders prepare for a potential natural catastrophe.

Jill Palmer, executive director at the American Red Cross Florida Gulf Coast to Heartland chapter, said volunteers are on standby.

"We work all year long to ensure that our volunteers have the proper training," Palmer said.

Community partnerships

Palmer says they work closely with community partners and emergency management to ensure they have a strong relationship ahead of any disaster.

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"Right now, our teams are coordinating with those local partners," Palmer said. "We're reviewing our response plans, mobilizing our volunteers and also starting to pre-position some disaster supplies so that we are ready to provide aid as it's needed."

Palmer said supplies include pallets of water, shelf stable meals and disaster cleanup supplies.

"Because of the way we are structured, we are able to scale up depending on the size of disaster response operation," Palmer said. "Right now, we are working across the South Florida region with our volunteers that are here locally that have already been trained in sheltering logistics mass care."

Following the storm, they work across the entire organization to bring in additional workforce, additional supplies, vehicles and resources very similar to what they did following Hurricane Irma in 2017, Palmer said.

Southwest Florida had hundreds of volunteers that came in to help with that response operation after the storm, Palmer said.

"We're able to flex those resources where they're needed, making sure that the communities have what they need when they need it," Palmer said.

Readiness plan

For now, Palmer says they're urging the community to make sure they're thinking about themselves, their families and what their readiness plan is going to be.

"That looks like creating an evacuation plan," Palmer said. "Know what you're going to do in case you might become separated from your family or if you need to evacuate where you live and go to one of the established shelters."

Palmer says they also ask the community to think about building an emergency kit.

"You're going to need water," Palmer said. "You're going to need nonperishable foods, flashlights, battery-powered radios and not to forget any of those first-aid supplies such as medication."

After checking those boxes, she urges Southwest Florida residents to stay informed.

"We also advise individuals to download a free Red Cross emergency app that they can use to make sure that they're safe, their loved ones [are] safe [and] they can get real time alerts," Palmer said. "It will also show where we have Red Cross shelters open."

Volunteer deployment

Palmer says they work with local emergency management on opening and staffing shelters.

"Your county, the emergency managers oversee the shelters and Red Cross has offered their support if they need additional workforce for those shelters," Palmer said.

The local chapter  has around 340 volunteers, but each volunteer is trained in a particular area, Palmer said.

Palmer said 90% of the workforce for the American Red Cross are volunteers.

"We have over 300,000 volunteers within our network," Palmer said. "And we are able to scale up and bring in those those folks where they're needed when they're needed."

Palmer said that allows the American Red Cross to respond to multiple disasters simultaneously, such as the typhoon in Alaska, hurricane in Puerto Rico and wildfires in California.

The local chapter also deployed volunteers to the recent flooding in Kentucky.

"We're closely monitoring and tracking the tropical depression," Palmer said. "We're doing the work today to make sure that we're standing up our disaster leadership structure and positioning those supplies, and really making sure that our team is ready to go."

How can you help?

Palmer said those interested in volunteering with the Red Cross can find more related information on their website, redcross.org, as well as by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS.

"We're always looking for individuals who can help support our work through vital donations," Palmer said. "That really allows us to be able to do this disaster work every single day across the country."

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and TikTok @tomasfrodriguez.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida hurricane watch: Local Red Cross volunteers ready to assist