By Digital Communications Manager, Ashley Henyan
In the last seven weeks, the American Red Cross has launched wide-ranging relief efforts to help people devastated by three historic, back-to-back-to-back hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, and Maria. And now, the Red Cross is helping families affected by deadly wildfires in California that are devastating entire neighborhoods just days after a fourth hurricane, Nate made landfall in Mississippi. The Red Cross is on the ground, part of a large team of agencies and organizations responding to provide help to communities turned upside down.
When disasters of this magnitude strike over a relatively short period of time, the Red Cross relies on the help of our donors, supporter and partners to ensure relief supplies and workers can reach those most heavily impacted. That is why, here in Los Angeles, we are so thankful for the heartfelt support of our local media partners: ABC 7, NBCLA/Telemundo and Fox 11.
On August 31 and September 22 Red Cross volunteers manned the phone lines at ABC 7, in Glendale, in support of disaster relief. The August telethon was dedicated to Hurricane Harvey Disaster relief, while the September 22 efforts were dedicated to the devastating 7.1 magnitude Earthquake that struck Mexico. During the September event alone, more than 50 Los Angeles based volunteers answered the phones on-air in support of Red Cross relief efforts. Many notable individuals joined in to help, including: Mayor Eric Garcetti, Sup. Hilda Solis, Gleb Savchenko, Karl Schmid and many ABC 7 on-air television personalities. Red Cross Los Angeles Region CEO, Jarrett Barrios, fresh off a three and a half week deployment for Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma relief, also joined the efforts.
On September 1 2017 Los Angeles Region volunteers answered the call again, this time at NBC/Universal, during a full day of on-air support for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief efforts in both English and Spanish. Donned in Red Cross T-shirts, NBC/Telemundo on-air personalities showed their support, answering phones throughout the day alongside Red Cross volunteers.
Fox 11 showed support with a 3-day long donation drive to help families affected by Hurricane Harvey and the La Tuna
Canyon Fire. Fox 11 on-air personalities joined Red Cross volunteers at three different locations, including Walmart in Burbank on September 5, Mathis Brothers in Ontario on September 6, and Honda Center in Anaheim on September 7.
ABC 7, NBCLA/Telemundo and Fox 11 all offered online donation options to accompany their generous disaster relief fundraising activities.
Thanks in part to the help and support of Los Angeles area media partners, in the last seven weeks, the Red Cross, along with its community and government partners, has provided more than 1.2 million overnight stays in emergency shelters. In all, shelters were opened in eight states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands including, 429,000 overnight shelter stays in Texas and Louisiana for Hurricane Harvey, more than 647,000 overnight shelter stays across six states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for Hurricane Irma, and more than 198,000 overnight stays in primarily government shelters across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for Hurricane Maria.
Right now, more than 2,500 Red Cross disaster workers and more than 230 emergency response vehicles are on the ground, helping thousands of people affected by these storms including nearly 240 Red Cross workers who have deployed from the Los Angeles Region.
