American Red Cross focuses on keeping people prepared

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The American Red Cross of Central & Southern Texas has one key message to the people of Texas: prepare your household now for more frequent extreme weather.

September is National Preparedness Month, and as we move further into October, the American Red Cross recommended plans of action to combat worsening disaster.

Meteorologist Tommy House spoke with Danella Hughes, the Red Cross Regional Disaster Officer of Central and South Texas on ways locals can stay prepared.

Tommy House: What are some of the examples of potential disasters in the Central Texas region?

Danella Hughes: Well, there could be a lot of potential disasters. Flash Flooding is one of them, and usually we see that occurrence around spring, we see a lot of convection weather, and I'm sure you see that on your weather station, but once you have hot and the cold air masses colliding, there's the potential for flash flooding and tornadoes. Climate change is also a big topic of discussion when it comes to weather. As the days get hotter, there's a lot of folks who are impacted by that. When temperatures reach 110°, this kind of heat does cause fatalities. In addition to cold weather, when it gets very cold, those conditions can also lead to fatalities. So we got heat, we've got cold, we've got tornadoes, and we've got some flash flood lighting here in Central Texas that we should be aware about, and we should prepare for.

House: How can we prepare for these said disasters?

Hughes: There are several ways that we can prepare for these disasters. First, we want to make sure that we're watching the weather. We have an emergency app here at the American Red Cross. If you want to download from your iPhone or your Android phone, search "Red Cross" and that's going to tell you exactly what's going on in your area. You just put in your zip code. When we have a flash flood occurrence, it's very hard to prepare for that, but it's really important that if it does occur, that everyone's got a rally point. The same thing with tornadoes. One of the things that we've noticed in Hurricane Helene are the lost family members. We have a lot of families who are displaced but also did not have a rally point. So they're going to come to us, they're going to go to law enforcement, they're going to go to their local communities and look for family members.

So it's real important that if, if you know something's going to come or something happens to your family, there's another home you can go to, which is a friend or family, there's another city you can meet in, and maybe there's a local convenience store that everyone can go at. You want to make sure that we decrease the number of fatalities when these disasters occur. So having that rally point for your family and also practicing that what we do here at the American Red Cross.

House: How does the Red Cross provide support following these disasters?

Hughes: Yes, there's a lot of ways we can support you. So if you come to the the American Red Cross, we will have a center to where we can help find those lost family members. One of the biggest things that we do the the American Red Cross is mass care, and that's sheltering, feeding and distribution of emergency supplies. We want to be that safe, secure place when these disasters occur, and that's in any disaster, whether it's heat related, cold related, tornado or flash floods, we will open shelters for reunification. We will open a nearby shelter to make sure that you have that safe, secure place to go, just for those those incoming couple of days right after impact, to make sure you have food, to make sure you've got you've got a cleanup kit to make sure you've got whatever it is that you need to go back home and start rebuilding and you get to that new recovery phase. So we want to make sure that you have a safe, secure place. We want to make sure that your family has hot, warm meals. And in addition to that, you've got the tools necessary in order to rebuild your family and rebuild your future after these devastating storms, tornadoes or flash floods.