Hurricane relief: How you can help those affected
JACKSON, Tenn. — Hurricane relief efforts are still needed for victims out east. There are still ways that you can help here in West Tennessee.
As we learned Wednesday, quite a few first responders from the Jackson-Madison County area returned home after helping hurricane victims in East Tennessee. In total, 25 people from our area went to help in Unicoi County. Eight returned on Wednesday after being there for two and a half weeks.
“Pictures and stuff you’ve seen on tv and social media don’t do it justice. Complete and total devastation throughout a large part of that city and county,” said Madison County Fire Department Chief Eric Turner.
“So we saw over 250 patients the whole time we were there,” said Lynn Mooney, EMA director.
The total devastation that Chief Turner mentioned is going to be a long process to get people back on their feet. We reached out to David Hicks, the executive director for the Midwest Tennessee chapter of the American Red Cross, about how people can assist them with recovery efforts.
He says that the biggest need, right now, are financial contributions. This allows the Red Cross to have spending power to purchase whatever is needed at that time.
You can donate via their website or by a personal check. You can make the check out to ‘American Red Cross’ and make sure to put ‘Hurricane Helene response East TN’ in the memo line. The address to send that check to is 19 Stonecreek Circle Jackson, TN 38305.
Volunteers are also always needed. You can register online and this will allow the Red Cross to train new volunteers to be qualified to help with future disaster responses.
There has been a tremendous amount of donations of food and water over the past few weeks. Here at WBBJ, we have been told by multiple sources that sleeping bags, tents, blankets, and pillows will be needed very soon. Especially as the colder weather is approaching. Hopefully, more information on how to donate those will come out soon.
For more information on how to get involved with the American Red Cross, click here.
For more news in the Jackson area, click here.
