Volunteers from the Arizona Red Cross are headed to Louisiana to help residents affected by Hurricane Delta, which made landfall late last week.
But, due to the pandemic, some volunteers are working remotely from their houses in Arizona.
Red Cross spokesperson Colin Williams says said a lot of Red Cross volunteers are older and were apprehensive about being exposed to COVID-19 while performing disaster relief, so providing virtual volunteer options made sense.
"It's really been a challenge for the American Red Cross," he said. "A lot of our volunteers are just reluctant to travel. They don't want to get on a plane, they don't want to travel, they don't want to be in a position of exposing themselves (to the virus)."
These remote volunteers are helping Louisiana residents with some of the more administrative burdens associated with disaster relief.
“Connecting them with local resources which will help them rebuild their homes, and just as kind of a clearinghouse for their recovery plan," Williams said. "There’s also folks that are on the medical side that are helping people replenish lost prescription medications.”
Other remote volunteers are providing trauma counseling and therapy services for hurricane victims — who have suffered two hurricanes in a little over a month.
"There's people that are there just to listen to people that are struggling emotionally with the trauma," Williams said. "Not only of this storm, but these people have been hammered over and over again, and it's just taking an emotional toll."
