Red Cross Shelter
NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio – When natural disasters strike, the American Red Cross shows up to offer their services to the residents and first responders.
American Red Cross East Central Ohio Chapter Executive Director Tim Callahan talked about the efforts that were coordinated with the Perry County Emergency Management Agency to help area victims that were affected by this week’s flooding.
“So we set up a shelter here,” Callahan said. “We set up one at the Crooksville Middle School and we had one down in Corning. As they started to assess, we started to assess. We closed the Corning, the Crooksville Middle School was out of power because of the substation being under water and the access to the school was, the water was rising. So Perry County Public Transit helped us move all the people from there to here.”
Approximately 30-to-35 residents were housed during the overnight hours at the makeshift shelter, which was located inside the Perry County Fairgrounds. Callahan specified that the shelter will be available until there is no longer a need.
“A lot of volunteers have been here; I have one standing over here that’s been part of the sheltering crew,” Callahan said. “So we have three or four people, five people at a shift. We try to run three shifts. And there’s a lot of people that are behind the scenes that are running logistics and you know, setting up shelters and doing all this things.” Callahan said. “And working with the community, we don’t do it all by ourselves. You know we work with our partners in the community. And the community has stepped up big time to just make sure people have what they need.”
Callahan noted that Red Cross responses to natural disasters are typically handled by local Red Cross volunteers, who make up about 90 percent of the manpower. Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the Red Cross can visit them online and local contributions are being handled by the Perry County Health Department.
