PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An emergency response vehicle at the Center City headquarters of American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Region hit the road for North Carolina on Wednesday to support communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Mary Noll, an American Red Cross volunteer for 19 years, was behind the wheel of the ERV.
“It’s a feeding vehicle. There is a serving window on the side,” Noll said. “And we go out into the communities and deliver food to shelters and churches for fixed feeding, but we will also go door to door in the disaster zones. And we will feed people who need a hot meal, because they don’t have any power and that helps to keep them close to their homes so they can continue to clean out their home and get back to some semblance of normal.”
Accompanying Noll is Jennifer Graham, CEO of American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Region.
“When we get down there, we are going to find a Red Cross kitchen,” Graham said. “From there, we are going to pick up our food and we are going to set it up in the ERV — and it’s hot meals. And from there we will be able to open the window and feed people.”
This vehicle will join 60 other emergency response vehicles already in North Carolina. Noll will maintain all of the vehicles there.
“We have to check them and make sure if there is anything loose or broken — or if it needs to get serviced, there is a tire issue, we’ll make sure it will get taken care of.”
Noll is one of only six Red Cross volunteers in the entire country who does what she does.
Through the trail Hurricane Helene cut across the Southeast, tens of thousands of homes have been affected and hundreds of people are still missing, according to the Red Cross. People need water, food, medicine and medical care. Making matters worse, damaged roads, bridges, and power and communication lines have cut off entire communities from the rest of the world. Some 1.3 million households — about 4 million people — are still without power.
The Red Cross says more than 1,200 disaster responders from across the country are helping people across the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.
All Red Cross assistance is free and made possible with donations of time and money. The nonprofit is accepting donations to help communities affected by the storm. More information can be found at redcross.org.