COLORADO SPRINGS — Volunteers from all over the world are headed to the Southeast United States to help families impacted by Hurricane Milton. Many of those volunteers are from Colorado.
The American Red Cross alone has 60 volunteers from Colorado that are in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina. The Red Cross plans to send more in the coming days. One of those volunteers, Phi Filerman, is from Carbondale, Colorado.
“What can I do,” Filerman said. “You watch all of these disasters on the news, and you just feel so helpless. And I think if you're someone who just sort of has that natural inclination to want to do something... the Red Cross just seemed like a natural fit."
Feeling called to action, Filerman joined a local branch of the Red Cross in Colorado. She is currently volunteering at an evacuation center in Georgia.
“It's been set up to be ready for people that are evacuating Milton, and we have nobody here,” Filerman said.
But Filerman said they are expecting the gym to be full with hundreds of people evacuating Hurricane Milton in the next 24 hours.
“So we had one family here last night, which we were surprised that we didn't have more people. But as we're a little bit further up the I-75 corridor, so as things get more full, closer to Florida, we suspect we'll be getting overflow,” Filerman said.
The evacuation center she is at is located at the Central Georgia Technical College campus in Warner Robins, Georgia. That's about 136 miles from the Georgia Florida state line.
“We are not in an area of hardship or disaster,” Filerman said.
Overflow from shelters in Florida will come to their center. When they arrive people can come inside the center to sit out the storm and get food, water, and help.
“If they find out they've gotten any health concerns or anything. There is a nurse here from the county, so we'll direct them there. If they are having mental health issues, the Red Cross has mental health support, so we'll make sure that they have those resources. And then just really checking in and just taking care of people,” Filerman said.
This is Filerman’s first deployment with the Red Cross.
“We keep hearing stories of, you know, how all the devastation and people and needs and things and so, yeah, I'm a little nervous about that,” Filerman said.
But Filerman is ready to help.
“Just make sure people have what they need and they feel taken care of,” Filerman said.
First responders from Colorado are also on their way to provide assistance in Florida. Two members of the Pueblo Fire Department left on Wednesday to help out with the rescue efforts, and hazmat and medical for people hurt by Hurricane Milton. The Colorado Springs Fire Department is also sending 14 members to help out. They are expected to stay in the area until the storm passes.
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