In response to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in recent days, Embrace Relief has made a $2,500 donation to the American Red Cross to support the organization’s emergency aid efforts in North Carolina and Florida.
Representatives from Embrace Relief presented the donation to Sara Huisking, Executive Director of the American Red Cross’ Northern New Jersey Chapter, at the chapter’s Fairfield office Friday morning, Oct. 11.
“I just want to say thank you so much from the Red Cross here in New Jersey,” Huisking said. “We can only do what we do through the power of donors, and the power of our volunteers. Your donations will help our volunteers get trained and travel down to [Florida and] North Carolina, as well as to help out with disasters here as well.”
More than 140 volunteers and staff members from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania are among the 2,000 Red Cross workers working in the disaster zone, providing critical assistance – including food, water and emergency sheltering – to victims of the storms. Donations to the Red Cross support these life-saving efforts, and Embrace Relief is proud to contribute to these efforts with funds raised during our Hurricane Helene Relief fundraising drive, which concluded in early October.
“Within 24 hours of [the hurricane], we had dozens of volunteers getting trained in sheltering, and then getting onto a flight to get down there to help,” Huisking said. “To be able to mobilize 2,000 volunteers and staff is really the incredible part of working here.”
More than 200 deaths were caused by the effects of Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread catastrophic flooding across nearly every state in the southeastern part of the United States in late September. In the western North Carolina city of Asheville and many of its suburbs, communities are still struggling without running water more than two weeks after the storms hit.
Meanwhile, in Florida, many of the areas hit hardest by Helene have now been deluged by Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane (with 120 mile per hour winds) on Wednesday, Oct. 9. The storm knocked out electricity to millions of Florida residents, made numerous roads impassable, and caused an estimated $50 billion in property damage. As of this writing, at least 16 deaths in Florida have been connected to the storm.
Embrace Relief continues to raise funds for relief following Hurricane Milton, as we strive to provide the basic necessities to storm victims. To donate, visit our Hurricane Milton Relief Fund page by clicking here.
To learn more about the Red Cross and its response efforts to the recent hurricanes, click here to visit the Red Cross’ Milton/Helene information page.
