Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Utahns are mobilizing to assist Florida as Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, approaches with potential for widespread devastation.
- Seven volunteers from the American Red Cross of Utah, including Haydee Tapia, have already been deployed to Tampa to support evacuation shelters for displaced families, the elderly and pets.
MURRAY — Hurricane Milton, a massive Category 3 storm, is barreling toward Florida and that means widespread devastation is expected.
Utahns are stepping up prepared to immediately help in the storm's wake. With some 31,000 people in American Red Cross shelters already, the need is great.
First Helene, now Milton
As millions brace for impact in Florida, people have grabbed what they can to drive toward a safer place to ride out the storm.
"We can see it in their faces. They a little panicked. They a little stressed," said Haydee Tapia.
Tapia, a resident of Roosevelt, is one of seven volunteers from The American Red Cross of Utah, who deployed Monday to Florida. The volunteers have been preparing for Milton's arrival with boots on the ground.
"You can see, this is where the cots; we are sleeping … We don't have, you know, a cozy bed and nothing fancy and nothing. But here, we have a heart and we have the love for people," Tapia said.
Stationed to help with a shelter in Tampa, Florida, Tapia said there are currently 145 beds, of which 50 are already full.
"We have families. We have elderly people," Tapia said. "We have beds. We have kitties and parrots, too, and dogs."
Training on the ground
This is not Tapia's first deployment. For other Utahns, however, it is.
On Tuesday, the American Red Cross was teaching a sheltering class. It went over how to be prepared and how to set up and best help families.
Some are learning by doing.
"The reality is, that we had to send about close to, I think, about half that class out early, so they're getting training on the ground because the need is so great to have people there who are there to respond," said Jeremiah Lafranca, executive director of the Greater Salt Lake Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.
As the window closes for this hurricane's arrival, the push right now includes monetary donations and keeping the national blood supply high.
"With all these blood drives that have had to be cancelled down in North Carolina, and all of the Carolina's Tennessee Florida — we still have that need for blood to support the hospitals that are down there," Lafranca said.
"We expect a lot of people coming. We expect more people coming," Tapia said.
Lafranca said volunteers from the Utah and Nevada region will be there for at least two weeks.
The Red Cross knows this will be a recovery for the long haul spanning months, even years.
For now, they are preparing to send another round of volunteers out in the near future.
