New Jersey volunteers with the American Red Cross are in Florida helping displaced residents after Hurricane Milton ripped through the state last week.
Volunteers with the American Red Cross New Jersey region went to the Tampa area in advance of the storm to set up shelter for those fleeing their homes for safety. Among them was New Jersey native Riksum Kazi.
“We set up what we call an emergency evacuation shelter in Hillsborough County with the support of other volunteers and government agencies,” Kazi told NJ Spotlight News. “We were there before landfall, and we did what we could to support the evacuees. We were supporting upwards of 450 people.”
It will be a long road to recovery for those impacted, Kazi said, and the Red Cross will be there for the long term. After Red Cross leaders identified food provision as the immediate need, “my team was reassigned to a feeding mission, and we are feeding all throughout Florida,” said Kazi.
“Right now we are in Tampa, and we have in my unit 500 meals,” Kazi said, “There are other units like my team here. We’re distributing as much breakfast, lunch, and dinner as possible, as long as we need to be here.”
Seventeen people have been confirmed dead in the hurricane, and around 400,000 were still without power as of Monday morning. President Joe Biden visited the storm-ravaged state, promising $100 million to restore Florida’s power system and $600 million in relief funds to states impacted by hurricanes Milton and Helene.
