Thousands of Hurricane Matthew evacuees hunkered down in Red Cross shelters and other facilities today, waiting out the Category 4 storm expected to hit Georgia full-bore late tonight.
The disaster relief agency started out with 19 shelters overnight Thursday and wound up opening four more by this morning.
More than 2,100 spent the night in Red Cross shelters around the state and untold thousands more in other facilities supported by Red Cross with foods, supplies, blankets and cots.
With hotels full between Atlanta and Valdosta, many people turned to the Red Cross for help.
At least 2,000 residents spent the night in Augusta shelters, the busiest of the Red Cross centers that were filling up the fastest. Many had to be bused to other locations.
In Valdosta, the Red Cross Shelter at Park Avenue Methodist Church had to turn away people when it reached its capacity of 200. The overflow was sent to Crosspoint Church, another nearby Red Cross shelter.
“Georgia hasn’t seen a storm of this magnitude that has the potential of creating the kind of damage that Matthew can in decades,” Georgia Red Cross spokeswoman Divina Mims-Puckett said this morning. “The good thing is we’ve been preparing for this storm for more than a week. We’ve been working really closely with community partners such as faith-based and non profits to coordinate readiness and response efforts.”
The agency has assembled some 1,800 disaster workers and 90 response vehicles ready to help the affected states and more help is standing by, Mims-Puckett said.
To find Red Cross Shelters, log on to redcross.org or go to a Google Play or Apple Store and look for the free Red Cross app, which enables you to find shelters and see whether they're filled.
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