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Local Red Cross Aids In Haiti Effort

Carmel, CALIF.  - The Haiti earthquake has prompted the quick response for help, from people all over the country, including here on the Central Coast.

The Carmel office of the American Red Cross says, they've seen an outpour of support from the community since this disaster hit. In fact, they received more than a dozen calls from people who want to volunteer.

Jill Hofmann works in the Carmel office. She's been with Red Cross for 25 years and has helped with a number of international disasters. Back in 1999, she represented the National American Red Cross as part of an assessment team for the Turkish earthquake. While she hasn't been asked to go to Haiti, she says, the Red cross will once again send a six-person management team to assess the damage.

"Many of the buildings have collapsed on themselves and there's people trapped underneath," says Hofmann. "They don't have electricity or the machinery to help undo the buildings so they can access the people below. They are sending search teams with dogs to find people underneath buildings. It's a deviating toll on the people there cause they don't know if their families or alive or dead."

So she adds, their priorities will be saving people's lives who are buried underneath the rumble and getting them food and water.

The Red Cross has an international response fund set up for donations for an international crisis like the Haiti Quake.

Call 1-800-REDCROSS or you can mail a donation to:

American Red Cross Monterey Bay Area Chapter, P.O. Box AR Carmel, CA 93921 (831) 624-6921
www.arcmontereybay.org

or go online to www.sccredcross.org for the Santa Cruz County Chapter.

For those back here at home  who want to help, they encourage people to send money since that will be quicker as opposed to sending supplies. For those who want to go to Haiti, they advise to wait until the management team goes there and assesses it firsthand.