Red Cross Volunteers Return Home
By: Ashley Zilka
Updated: November 15, 2012
Residents downstate are still cleaning up after the storm. News 8 spoke to one Red Cross volunteer who just returned back to Rochester.
Sarah Perkins is from the disaster assessment team. She was in Long Island for 15 days. Weeks later, she says thousands of people are still in shelters. It was her job to assess the situation using data. The information gathered will help the Red Cross respond in the coming weeks.
"I think some of the folks in Long Island, in particular, didn't actually believe that the hurricane was going to happen because Hurricane Irene last year skipped over everyone in the New York area. I think they just thought this was gong to be another one of those events, and it really did catch them by surprise. Then, once the shock wore off, they realized this was greater than themselves," said Sarah Perkins.
Perkins says there will be a need for more volunteers because the ones in New York will soon rotate out.
Sarah Perkins is from the disaster assessment team. She was in Long Island for 15 days. Weeks later, she says thousands of people are still in shelters. It was her job to assess the situation using data. The information gathered will help the Red Cross respond in the coming weeks.
"I think some of the folks in Long Island, in particular, didn't actually believe that the hurricane was going to happen because Hurricane Irene last year skipped over everyone in the New York area. I think they just thought this was gong to be another one of those events, and it really did catch them by surprise. Then, once the shock wore off, they realized this was greater than themselves," said Sarah Perkins.
Perkins says there will be a need for more volunteers because the ones in New York will soon rotate out.
