American Red Cross shelters hold strong during Hanna

By Laura Vesco
Reporter
Published: September 6, 2008

Now that we’re in the most active part of the hurricane season, the American Red Cross is staying pretty busy.

Hundreds of volunteers are still in the Gulf Coast helping hurricane Gustav victims.

And last night, Red Cross volunteers throughout the east were patiently awaiting tropical storm Hanna.

Joy Branham with Onslow County American Red Cross says for many people in the shelters this was their first taste of the tropics.

“They’ve never been through this sort of thing before and were unsure on what to do so they came to the Red Cross because we have experience,” said Joy Branham

And this was the first time in 2 years the Onslow Red Cross had to open shelters, Branham says there was only one minor glitch.

‘The town of Swansboro last night had a power outage and that affected our shelter at Swansboro High School but out staff is very prepared for that because its a common occurrence and the shelter was only out for 35 min,” said Branham

Now is the time to give donations or volunteer since Ike is the future

Though they may have gone without power for a little while, they didn’t go hungry.

The Onslow Red Cross says they served more than 350 meals and 500 snacks throughout the night.

Altogether, about fifteen hundred people went to shelters across our state last night.