When severe weather impacts local communities, businesses and employees step up. U-Haul has been helping communities in times of trouble and assisting the Red Cross when disasters strike for decades. This continued on when two hurricanes threatened the islands of Hawaii earlier this month. There was a response of Red Cross assistance in Hawaii.
“Two major hurricanes headed towards Hawaii within a matter of days,” stated Jan Keahola, Volunteer Logistics Lead for Honolulu County, American Red Cross Hawaii. “We were fortunate that Hurricane Madeline skirted the southern point of Hawaii and quickly veered South and Hurricane Lester passed just North of the State.”
The Red Cross, one of the world’s most valued non-profit organizations, offers U-Haul a breadth of experience and volunteer manpower in disaster response situations. U-Haul, in turn, is equipped to lend assistance with donations of equipment use during times of need. U-Haul is a proud Disaster Responder Partner to the American Red Cross.
“We requested the U-Haul vehicles before the passing of the storms to pre-stage equipment from our large warehouse near Pearl Harbor to our other supply points around the island of Oahu to provide for bulk distribution items to assist with projected hygiene, cleaning and housing needs, ” Keahola explained.
“Once the request was received, U-Haul equipment was located and made available to the Red Cross team to utilize. A total of 8 vehicles were made ready to respond and reserved for the American Red Cross relief efforts usage statewide.”
“In the hours after severe weather strikes a community, relief can come from the simplest comfort kit provided by the Red Cross. These bulk distributions needed to be moved to areas where the community could have access to them and here at U-Haul, we have the equipment and the means to help achieve this,” Zofia Sells, Community Relations Specialist, U-Haul International.
“Hawaii was fortunate enough to have dodged this serious threat. With the use of the U-Haul vehicles, we were able to overhaul our cache of clean-up and comfort kits and we are ready to respond to our community’s needs in the future.”
U-Haul is among 39 members with the Disaster Responder Program for the Red Cross. The program shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disaster, supplies about 40 percent of our nation’s blood, teaches skills that saves lives, provides international humanitarian aid, and supports military members and their families.
You can be an everyday hero for the Red Cross all year long. To learn more about the Red Cross or to make a donation, visit redcross.org.
