Hundreds of thousands evacuated in Texas and Louisiana, while others - like medical professionals, nurses, and volunteers - head towards Hurricane Laura.
People with homes and businesses in Laura's path boarded up, packed up, and left, as the National Hurricane Center warned about the danger of this particular storm.
"It's just going to be disastrous, we don't know what to expect as far as the extent of medical needs right now," said Triad nurse Alan Grizzard.
Even though this will be his first deployment to a hurricane, Grizzard, a nurse and former paramedic from Winston-Salem, isn't a stranger to crisis situations - especially in 2020.
Earlier this year - at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City - he spent weeks in a Bronx emergency room.
"COVID produced so many uncontrolled environments," he said, "There were so many unknowns, so much about the response was unpredictable - much less, understood. Disaster relief is pretty much the same scenario."
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Wednesday morning, Grizzard boarded a plane for Texas, joining with hundreds of other nurses and medical workers who are ready to respond.
"Emergency management in the state of Texas and Louisiana are kind of running the show and they'll be handing out orders once the needs are assessed and we know exactly which resources to deploy to which areas," he explained.
While currently in a holding pattern, Grizzard says they're read to backfill health systems or help at evacuation shelters and field hospitals.
"Keep everybody in your thoughts and prayers," he said, "We're going to go do what we do - hopefully, help somebody out and get everybody through this together. Because we're all in the same battle, again, and this is where we step up and take care of each other."
He says the deployed nurses are prepared to stay for at least a week, but it wouldn't be surprising to stay even longer depending on the need.
