CONNECTICUT, USA — As Hurricane Ian gets closer to Florida, people from Connecticut are ready to help.
"Right now it is expected for this storm to be quite devastating. And we're happy and proud of our Red Cross volunteers here in Connecticut that are stepping up to help our friends in Florida," said Jocelyn Hillard, regional communications director for the Red Cross CT and RI Region.
The volunteers from Connecticut will join others in helping to provide sheltering efforts and the Red Cross is ready to ramp up those efforts if needed.
"Not only are we pre-positioning volunteers but also supplies and we will continue to evaluate our efforts as the storm arrives and what it will look like after that," Hillard said.
This comes as the organization already has a presence in Puerto Rico following the devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona.
"A lot of rivers just overflowed and created a lot of damage, a lot of damage," said Ivette Gonzalez of Bridgeport.
She returned home Monday from Puerto Rico. She said the island is still in a place where it needs aid.
"Although they say 50% of the island has light and water, it's the metropolitan area. The rural areas are still without water, light," Gonzalez said.
As the hurricane made its way north, it also caused damage in Nova Scotia. Where United Illuminating crews from Connecticut are now helping out.
"Nova Scotia was impacted with about 70% of their customers being interrupted. On Saturday night we got a call that they needed help so we mobilized 50 line workers to go and support their efforts," said Charles Eves, vice president of electric operations for United Illuminating.
Hurricane season puts crews in a position where they need to be ready for anything. They go where they are needed and can pull back if needed back home.
"We're always watching the weather. We need to be proactive in assessing the weather and what's coming at us and making sure that we're requesting the resources that we might need to respond," Eves said. "We're keeping a close eye on that and we'll get our crews back if we need them to support Connecticut outages," he said.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at gmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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