Volunteers with "Disaster Relief at Work" pack supplies for Hurricane Idalia victims
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – As Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida's west coast Wednesday, a local nonprofit was loading up its first round of supplies to the region.
For more than a decade, "Disaster Relief at Work" (DRAW) has been helping natural disaster survivors around the country salvage whatever is left behind.
Volunteers play a vital role in assembling the cleaning kits, which are five-gallon buckets filled with supplies like household cleaners, rags, sponges and trash bags that are often overlooked but crucial in the aftermath of hurricanes like Idalia.
"At the end of the day, when you go to clean up, you have something nice to use at the end of the day. We're also sending down tarps to cover rooms and get things that are exposed covered," Kris Schmidt, the warehouse/operations manager for Disaster Relief at Work, said.
Over the last five years, Vicky Ekholm, a volunteer, has been crafting one-of-a-kind flood bags from recycled materials.
"It's better than obviously a cardboard box. And the plastic tubs are too heavy for wet items. For these, you put them in, and the water just drains out. And you can take about 40 pounds in it. So they're like two-fold, they help the people, plus we're recycling all those grocery bags," Ekholm said.
The truck transporting the supplies left their warehouse at Airport and Williams Lake Roads. Wednesday morning and will station itself just outside of Florida until they're directed to the hardest-hit areas.
In the meantime, volunteers focused on helping those affected by last week's strong storms in southeast Michigan.
"We're waiting to hear back from some local organizations here in the Metro Detroit area where we had a lot of flooding. So a lot of these buckets will go to right here in the Metro Detroit area to help Metro Detroiters," Schmidt said. "This is an opportunity for us to show that we care for Michigan."
"It kind of just hits you that you know that this is a disaster. And you truly are helping people," Ekholm said.
To learn how to volunteer or donate, visit https://drawbuckets.org/.