ST. LOUIS — Efforts in Florida are turning to recovery. The American Red Cross has staged crews and supplies in the surrounding area, ready to help as Hurricane Idalia shifts east.
There's a small group of volunteers from St. Louis who are in Florida tonight running emergency shelters. Tomorrow morning, American Red Cross Volunteer, Nikki Magditsch, will join them. Magditsch will be assisting with residential damage assessments.
"It will be mostly flooding and high winds," Magditsch said. "You're going to see a lot of roofs torn off. You're going to see a lot of damage done to vehicles as well."
Magditsch has been to multiple emergencies with the American Red Cross, and she said hurricanes are some of the most devastating. She will be in Florida for the next two weeks working alongside volunteers from around the country.
In addition to manpower, the Missouri-Arkansas American Red Cross has trucked long-term shelter supplies to Florida.
"Our American Red Cross has one of our national warehouses for disaster supplies here in Hazelwood," said Beth Elders, the American Red Cross Greater St. Louis Chapter's executive director. "We have actually sent four semi-loads of relief supplies already down to Florida, pre-positioned a few days ago to make sure that we have some of the material items needed for long-term sheltering and more."
Elders said the plan is to have enough supplies to support relief efforts in the long term.