Over 900 volunteers with the American Red Cross have made their way to states impacted by the devastation following Hurricane Helene.
Kimberly Vosseteig is Executive Director for the American Red Cross serving Eastern North Dakota and Northwest Minnesota. She says about 56 volunteers from this region have been deployed, with eight of those leaving from the Fargo area. She says they are focused on getting meals served and shelter secured for those impacted.
"Right now, we're going to the Carolinas, north Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, south Florida, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and central and southern Ohio. So we have multiple disaster recovery operations going on throughout the United States."
The full scope of the damage is not yet known after heavy winds, torrential rains and violent floods caused widespread damage in the path of the hurricane. Over a hundred fatalities have been confirmed, with hundreds of people still missing and tens of millions of people having lost electricity.
Vosseteig says the American Red Cross can still deploy more volunteers, but there are other ways to help the recovery and response efforts from home.
"We do have some blood drives happening this week. We have the Drekker blood drive happening this week that still has availability for spots open, so if anyone can come give blood we're really encouraging that. And then financial donations is something we can always use. I believe, we've heard the words 'billion dollar disaster' a couple times. And we just don't have any range or scope of understanding how big this is actually going to be, or how long we'll be here for that recovery period."
Vosseteig says it may take weeks and months before the true impact of Helene is determined. Forecasters are currently monitoring the formation of more storms in the Atlantic that may enter the Gulf region later this week.