Mainers aiding in Hurricane Ian relief efforts

TOPSHAM, Maine (WABI) - TV5 is continuing our month-long series highlighting the important work of the American Red Cross.

Last week, we told you about the American Red Cross’ efforts to spread the word about the importance of donating blood.

This week, we’re taking a look at another service they provide: disaster relief.

When disaster strikes, many people run the other way. But there are others who instinctively run towards the area of need. American Red Cross volunteers and employees like David Brown are among them.

“It’s the opportunity to be able to help folks that have just experienced personal tragedy, lost property, and find themselves in a situation where they’re very vulnerable and just need a little bit of help to get back on the road to recovery,” said Brown, disaster program manager for Coastal Maine.

After Hurricane Ian made landfall in September, Brown was one of at least 23 Mainers who were deployed to Florida through the American Red Cross to aid in on-going relief efforts.

“I went down to do damage assessment. It’s one of the key tasks that the American Red Cross provides. It’s also a position that allows you to really get out into the communities to talk to folks, to see how they’re doing, to provide a lot of information back to our headquarters as well as to other organizations to really see, where are the needs?” said Brown.

The deployment was Brown’s second since he started with the American Red Cross in 2020. His experiences have shown him that Mainers can make a difference wherever and whenever they’re called into action.

“When I went down to do damage assessment, I was able to work with our volunteers from up here. And they took on leadership roles and and really have built up an amazing amount of knowledge and experience that they then bring back to to Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont to make sure that if something were to happen up here, we have the knowledge and capacity to respond to that,” said Brown.

You can help people affected by disasters like storms and countless other crises by making a gift to Red Cross Disaster Relief.

Visit redcross.org, call 800-RED-CROSS (800-733-2767), or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

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