Rebecca Binneboese from Hinton, Iowa is one of five Iowa Red Cross workers deployed to the US Virgin Islands, to deliver meals to neighborhoods on St. Thomas that do not have easy access to food distribution. Red Cross workers in partnership with the Department of Health Services, FEMA and the Salvation Army have served nearly 50,000 meals and snacks throughout the US Virgin Islands.
(Des Moines, Iowa) Iowans associated with the American Red Cross as either staff or volunteers, continue to help hurricane victims.
Spokesman Mark Tauscheck with the Red Cross in Des Moines says at one point, about 150-Iowans had been deployed, now there are about 50, in multiple locations.
Tauscheck says volunteers and staff have been deployed to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Three volunteers have just been deployed to Mississippi and West Virginia, because of heavy rains and wind caused by Hurricane Nate.
He says the recovery is well underway in the continental United States, but the situation is still urgent in Puerto Rico. Most of the island still lacks electricity and easily accessible drinking water. Iowans in Puerto Rico are helping to distribute food and supplies to disaster victims.
Tauscheck says of the Iowans deployed, 16 have been re-deployed, starting out in Texas, and now being sent to Florida, serving for more than a month.
He says after Hurricane Harvey, the Red Cross sheltered tens of thousands of people in Houston, Texas. That figure is down to just under one thousand.
The Red Cross sheltered 200-thousand people in Florida after Hurricane Irma, but now is sheltering a little more than 200.