Hurricane Michael: Red Cross Helps Thousands

Photo by Daniel Cima/American Red Cross

On October 10, Hurricane Michael made a Category 4 landfall as the third-strongest hurricane in U.S. history. It was also the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 50 years. In total, the Red Cross and other organizations have provided more than 44,000 overnight stays in emergency shelters—the Red Cross has provided about 88 percent of these stays. More than 3,200 Red Cross disaster workers—nearly 90 percent volunteers—are on the ground and continue to support relief efforts across three states. Working with partners, the Red Cross has served more than 1.93 million meals and snacks. Volunteer mental health and health services professionals have provided some 34,700 contacts to provide support and care to evacuees. Disaster spiritual care responders provided more than 3,400 services to people impacted by Hurricane Michael in Florida and Georgia. We’ve distributed more than 270,200 relief items like clean up kits, shovels, bleach, garbage bags and much more to help more than 16,000 families with the massive clean-up effort.