DETROIT – The country is coming together to help the victims of Superstorm Sandy and at Local 4, Ruth Spencer and the Ruth to the Rescue unit are joining forces with the American Red Cross to support those affected.
Anyone who donates to the Red Cross will help the agency provide food, shelter, emotional support and other assistance to the people living in the hurricane-ravaged areas. The Red Cross has been helping communities since before Superstorm Sandy made landfall earlier this week.
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The Red Cross said it has shelters open in nine states and is currently focused on increasing a massive feeding operation to get hot meals to people in Long Island, Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey.
Ruth to the Rescue and the Red Cross will be taking your calls in the Local 4 phone bank during every newscast between 5 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Friday. People wishing to donate can call 313-298-WDIV (9348).
Red Cross volunteers will be taking calls from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., noon to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
People can also donate online at redcross.org.
The Red Cross said you can also text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
The Red Cross released the following statistics on their efforts to help hurricane victims:
More than 7,000 people spent Wednesday night in 115 Red Cross shelters across nine states including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio and the District of Columbia.
It has deployed 12 mobile kitchens capable of making 198,000 meals a day and shipped more than 334,000 shelf-stable meals to the area. The Red Cross activated more than 230 response vehicles, more than two-thirds of the entire Red Cross fleet, which are beginning to distribute meals, water and snacks in some areas.
Across the country, more than 3,300 Red Cross disaster workers have been mobilized and 50 trailers of relief supplies such as clean-up kits, rakes, shovels, tarps, dust masks and work gloves have been deployed.