Red Cross: Weather Taking Toll On Services
DALLAS (KRLD) - The freezing weather makes it tough for volunteers and charity organizations to help North Texans displaced by fires.
Anita Foster, with the American Red Cross, talked with KRLD NewsRadio 1080 and said the Red Cross will go to whatever lengths necessary to help those in need.
According to Foster, the Red Cross has been called to five different house fires in the last two days.
"One family, when we were in the middle of the actual sleet pouring down, we could not send a volunteer out," she recalled. "So, we just went ahead and booked a hotel for the family and worked directly with the fire department to get them to a safe location."
In addition to treacherous driving conditions, Foster says they're also monitoring the rolling blackout situation.
"If they [the blackouts] don't last long then most people, if it were your or me, we would just stay in our home and try to wait it out," Foster said of North Texans trying to keep warm. "But there comes a point when your power is going to be out for an extended time that we would be concerned about that and start implementing our shelter plan."
Foster says the Red Cross is in close touch with emergency response managers to stay on top of the situation. In fact, just an hour or so after her phone interview Foster sent out a Red Cross press release saying they will be opening a warming center in Corsicana.
The warming center, located at Northside Baptist Church at 2800 N. Beaton St., opened at Noon. Foster says there weren't any specific problems in the area and opening the center was simply a precautionary measure.
