Local organizations set to pitch in after Hurricane Milton

The aftermath of Hurricane Milton

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(ABC 6 News)- From one hurricane to the next. Hurricane Milton hit Florida’s west coast, bringing strong winds and leaving millions without power. This, just days after Helene wreaked havoc of its own. And now local organizations are looking for extra help as their resources are being stretched thin.

“There’s possibly other storms out there as well. We are looking for additional volunteers to join the Red Cross to help us in the future,” said Melanie Tschinda, the executive director for the American Red Cross of Rochester.

The Red Cross has been helping with Hurricane relief since the beginning. It provides evacuation shelters with those involved in both hurricanes.

“Some of those evacuation shelters will then transition as people are able to return to their homes, there may be some people who’s homes are gone and they need to stay in a shelter longer term,” Tschinda said.

And local crews are playing a big part.

“We also have deployed from our region, we have 7 emergency response vehicles. So those are those bigger vehicles, not quite the size of an ambulance, and they are used for distributing food and water throughout communities,” said Tschinda.

The Red Cross is also teaming up with Minnesota Wisconsin Baptist Church in Rochester to help.

“A lot of what we do are meal preparations in partnership with Red Cross. We cook the meals, they deliver the meals. But we have a lot of change over personnel too because if they’re short on personnel then we’ll help them deliver the meals, or if we’re short on cooks, they’ll bring in there people,” said Leo Endel, executive director for the Minnesota Wisconsin Baptist Church.

The church is also sending ministry teams down to provide emotional support.

“They’ll go just to do the work, but on the side, they’ll do the ministry side which they’re trained for and prepared for. So there’s some of both,” Endel said.

For more information on how to help with Hurricane Milton relief, click here.