CINCINNATI -- American Red Cross volunteer Tom Uthe is prepared to work 12-hour days for the next two weeks.
Uthe is one of four Cincinnati-area volunteers who left Monday morning to help with Hurricane Dorian relief efforts.
Uthe and the other volunteers are driving large trucks stocked with water and food to Mobile, Alabama, to help feed residents who have been affected by the hurricane.
“The most important thing when you’re feeding people affected by the hurricane is to just listen, because everybody will have a story and they really need to tell that story,” Uthe said.
After making a devastating landfall in the Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian has been downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane as it bears down on Florida's east coast.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Dorian currently has maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, which has fallen slightly since making landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday evening.
As projected, the storm has stalled just off the Florida coast and is currently moving west at just 1 mph. The storm is expected to make a northward turn Monday afternoon.
Uthe, who has been volunteering for seven years, said it was an easy decision when the American Red Cross asked him if he’d help with relief efforts.
“I’ve had a pretty good life, and this is my way of giving back to people in need,” Uthe said.
The volunteers are expected to arrive in Alabama Tuesday. The American Red Cross will then assess the need and dispatch the crew to the hardest-hit areas.
