Local agencies, volunteers prepare for weeks of hurricane relief efforts

By NATHAN VICKERS

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    LENEXA, KS (KCTV) — Many local nonprofits and emergency response teams are mobilizing to help with relief efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi.

At Heart to Heart International, volunteers loaded several trucks full of medical supplies and hygiene kits. They’ll deploy early Tuesday.

Dan Neal, Vice President of Operations for the nonprofit, said the group’s mobile medical unit would help relieve local medical needs caused by power outages.

“It’s like a doctor’s office on wheels,” he said. “It has medical supplies, several exam rooms.”

Neal started working with Heart to Heart just before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. The nonprofit’s volunteers have responded to dozens of disasters since then. They currently have teams assisting earthquake victims in Haiti, too.

Neal hoped that New Orleans would be better suited to weather Ida.

“We’ll just have to see what the effects are of the power being out for weeks and weeks,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge for the community there.”

KCTV5 also reached out to several churches, the Salvation Army, Harvesters, and the Red Cross. All of them said they would be sending volunteers and/or supplies in the coming weeks.

The state of Missouri also deployed the state’s Task Force 1 response team, made up of around 80 emergency response specialists.

Chuck Leake, the project manager of the team, said the team would be assisting with search and rescue efforts in the coming days.

“We’ve got orders to move from Lafayette, Louisiana, to a parish just outside New Orleans,” he said. “They’re working with local authorities to find out just how badly Missouri Task Force 1 is going to be needed.”

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