American Red Cross on standby to open shelters if needed during storm
The decision is left up to cities and towns, depending on the storm’s impact. The Red Cross says they can move quickly to open a shelter upon request.
By: Tim Studebaker
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – As a winter storm bears down on southern New England this weekend, the Red Cross is in full swing, preparing to help cities and towns open shelters on a moment’s notice, if needed.
Roger Dunn is Senior Director of Disaster Cycle Services with the American Red Cross in Rhode Island. Dunn says, “We have lots of volunteers for Red Cross that are right now preparing in case we need to open shelters. That includes getting supplies staged where they need to be. Some of the volunteers are rearranging their schedules to be available. There’s a lot of behind the scenes things that are happening at this point.”
According to Dunn, the decision to open shelters is left up to cities and towns, depending on the storm’s impact.
Dunn says, “In this type of storm, really the best place to shelter if possible is in your own homes. Now obviously, if there are widespread power outages, where people are going to be affected with their heat and electricity, then that’s going to be a trigger to when a shelter would be requested.”
If a town requests to open a shelter, that request goes through the state’s emergency operations center. From there, the Red Cross is able to get a shelter up and running very quickly.
Dunn says, “Usually within an hour or two, we’ve got people at the shelter – our volunteers at the shelter – getting everything set up and ready to start accepting people at the shelter.”
Dunn also says it’s important to make sure you have city and town emergency contact numbers on file in case you need them. He also suggests downloading the Red Cross emergency app for updates.
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