American Red Cross Disaster Newsroom

The following information shows our total service delivery since the beginning of the Red Cross response to Hurricane Irene in New York:

• Shelters opened: 99
• Shelter Overnight Stays: 6,075
• Clean up kits and bulk items:  26,091
• Meals served: 77,394
• Snacks served: 231,270
• Emergency Response Vehicles on the ground: 37
• Mental Health Consultations: 4,223
• Health Services Consultations: 2,861
• Total Red Cross workers: 1,679

The following information shows our total service delivery since the beginning of Hurricane Irene’s impact on the following states: Puerto Rico, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Virginia, and the New England states.

• Shelters opened: 353
• Shelter Overnight Stays: 53,000
• Clean up kits: 986 
• Bulk items: 1,832 
• Comfort kits: 23,304
• Meals served: 137,653
• Snacks served: 357,067
• Mental Health Consultations: 3,993
• Health Services Consultations: 6,920
• Total volunteers: 3,711
• Grand total all staff: 4,258

The following information shows our total service delivery since Hurricane Irene affected North Carolina:

• Shelters opened: 52
• Shelter Overnight Stays: 7,067
• Bulk items (including Comfort kits and Clean up kits: 2,729
• Meals served: 43,020
• Snacks served: 29,995
• Emergency Response Vehicles on the ground: 52
• Mental Health Consultations: 181
• Health Services Consultations: 527
• Red Cross volunteers and workers on the ground: 472

At 11:00 p.m. EDT, Sunday, August 28, 2011, the center of post-tropical cyclone Irene was located about 50 mi north of Berlin New Hampshire. Flooding and high winds produced by Irene caused widespread damages and left millions of residents without power throughout the affected states. Multiple deaths reported. North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have received federal emergency declarations.

Irene is moving toward the north-northeast near 26 mph. A turn toward the northeast and east-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected over the next couple of days. On this track, the center of Irene will move over eastern Canada tonight and on Monday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph with higher gusts mainly over or near the water well to the south and east of the center. Little change in strength is forecast during the next 48 hours. Gale-force winds extend outward up to 365 miles from the center. Gale-force winds are expected to affect coastal areas from eastern Long Island to Maine through this morning. Winds of tropical storm force, especially in gusts, could still occur across portions of eastern New England overnight. Significantly higher wind speeds are likely over areas of elevated terrain in northern New England and eastern Canada.

Heavy rains are diminishing over northern New England. Any additional accumulations should amount to less than one inch. Elevated water levels along the coast of New England will subside overnight and on Monday.

Saturday night, the Red Cross operated or supported nearly 500 shelters with more than 27,000 residents. Shelters now stretch from North Carolina to Maine. We have been opening and supporting more shelters as the storm progresses, and we expect those numbers could increase with power outages and possible flooding.

Our main focus right now is providing people with shelter and food and we’re putting the full force of the Red Cross behind our response. That means we have:
• Relief operations in more than a dozen coastal states.
• Thousands of trained disaster workers helping people from North Carolina to New England.
• More than 250 feeding vehicles – or more than two thirds of our entire fleet – ready to go into neighborhoods as soon as conditions permit. This includes every Red Cross feeding truck east of the Rocky Mountains.
• Tens of thousands of prepackaged meals are being positioned along the coast and we are working with our partners to make sure that we have kitchens positioned in the right place after the storm moves through.

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The response to Hurricane Irene could be one of the largest American Red Cross relief operations in recent memory. Millions of people are in the path of this storm. Friday night we operated or supported nearly 150 shelters with more than 13,000 residents.

The Red Cross is putting the full force of the Red Cross behind our response. That means we have:
-Thousands of trained disaster workers helping people up and down the east coast.
-More than 200 feeding vehicles – or two thirds of our entire fleet – positioned along the East Coast.
-Relief operations have been launched in more than a dozen coastal states.
-Tens of thousands of prepackaged meals moving into the area and we are working with our partners to make sure that we have kitchens positioned in the right place after the storm moves through.

Read the rest of this entry »