Local congregations and community organizations are joining forces with the American Red Cross to help those displaced by the storms in Macon. The west central Georgia chapter of the American Red Cross sent 4 volunteers and its new emergency response vehicle to Macon to respond to its first disaster. NBC 38’s Maria Jones has the story.
Since the storm hit on Sunday local volunteers have been going the extra mile to help those in need. They start every morning at 4am preparing hot meals for the areas hardest hit. “I love to help people, and that’s been a lot of destruction on what I’ve seen. It’s mostly been over on Eisenhower and down Pineona, and they’ve really, have got some really bad areas down there,” Volunteer with Woodman of the World, Dot Bailey stated. Another Volunteer with the Woodman of the World, Frankie Lamb added, “We’re preparing roughly four to five thousand meals a day. Twenty five hundred for breakfast and twenty five hundred for supper. And that’s about the capacity that we can run at right now.” With 8 Emergency Response vehicles like this one, Volunteers can load up 500 meals per unit. The Food is provided by SYSCO, the Woodmen of America prepares it and it is delivered by the American Red Cross. Because of their joint efforts many are thankful.
Storm Victim, Chelsey Ross told News 38, “There wonderful, I appreciate them coming to this area because the elderly over in this Bloomfield area, they don’t want to come out and even get anything, they’ll tell you their okay.” Another Victim, Mae Grandison added,
“Well this is very good for the first morning, because we have had to go all the way on Zeblin or either all the way on the other side of town to get something to eat.” For WLTZ NBC 38, I’m Maria Jones
The American Red Cross is always in need of help, and volunteers, if you’d like to help log on to www.redcross.org or call 1-800-Help-Now.