BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER)- Hurricane Isaac landed in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities late Tuesday night, just in time for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Nearly three thousand Red Cross volunteered have been dispatched and Maine sent it's third emergency response vehicle to Hattiesberg Mississippi.
Romeo Bouchard, a volunteer with the Red Cross drove the relief truck down to Mississippi. Bouchard said, "I was told yesterday afternoon and on the road this morning. I was prepared, I had my suitcase all packed and ready to go."
Bouchard spent over five weeks in New Orleans after Katrina hit. He described the feeling as the same.
The state's Red Cross coordinator told volunteers, like Bouchard, they would be dispatched, but they had less than twenty-four hours notice as to where.
Ninety-five percent of Red Cross staffing is made up of volunteers. They will be dispatched for at least two weeks to provide food, shelter, and disaster relief therapy.
Executive Director Todd Nadeau with the Red Cross Pine Tree chapter said, "It's an experience like no other and that's why our volunteers keep going back because they are helping their fellow human."
Bouchard said he would not trade the experience in for anything, "I'll keep going as long as I can go. As long as my health lets me go I'll keep going."
Bouchard will reach Mississippi by Friday and join nearly two hundred other vehicles in the relief effort.
All American Red Cross resources depend on private donations. A relief operation will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you want to donate to the Red Cross you can visit their website, drop it off at a local office, or text 90999 to make a ten dollar donation.
NEWS CENTER