NORTH CAROLINA, USA — Already this year the American Red Cross has responded to sixteen, billion dollar disasters. This, on top of a global pandemic, has required them to change the way they help people in need.
"This year has required us to rethink how we approach that," Robert Soflay said. "It doesn’t change our humanitarian mission or what we do we’re utilizing virtual resources and leveraging video teleconferencing and that’s really across-the-board."
Soflay is in Alabama getting ready to respond to Hurricane Delta that's expected to hit the Gulf Coast. Over the last several weeks more than 100 volunteers from the Greater Carolina's team have deployed across the country to respond to hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.
Regional CEO Allison Taylor is encouraging people to donate or volunteer.
"Wednesday night alone we had a little over 14,000 people who were in emergency lodging across four different states," Taylor said. "So that’s a big number."
The Red Cross has certainly made adjustments to accommodate the looming presence of COVID-19. That's evident in overnight shelters where 900,000 people have stayed this year. The Red Cross has served two million meals and snacks and made 80,000 Care Contact calls to check on on people's spiritual and emotional wellbeing.
"We really want to keep people safe so when people come to the Red Cross, when they come to our shelters, we’re working with our partners so they know that they’re and they’re entering a sanitary facility that they’re going to be secure to ride out that storm in," Soflay said.