Groups across Michigan are making plans to support those impacted by Hurricane Milton ahead of its landfall, including the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association and American Red Cross Michigan Region.
Casey Clark, director of communications and marketing for Michigan Electric Cooperative Association, said between a few people from their eight cooperatives in Michigan are part of those crews.
“We have approximately 30 linemen who are headed down to Kentucky. They’ll stay in Kentucky Tuesday night, and in the morning they will move forward to Tallahassee to help with Hurricane Milton when it hits,” said Clark.
Those linemen come from some companies in Northern Michigan like Wolverine Power Cooperative, Cherryland Electric, Presque Isle Electric & Gas, and Great Lakes Energy.
“The Florida Electric Cooperative Association called the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association and said, ‘Hey, we see the storm coming and we need all the reinforcements that we can get,’” said Clark.
Clark said the crews were ready to stay for ten days but that it could be as long as two weeks.
“We typically wouldn’t go as far as Florida to help other co-ops out. But we’re on the heels of Hurricane Helene, so resources are really tight. So we’re doing everything that we can to help, and our crews are eager to go help as well,” said Clark.
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For crews from American Red Cross Michigan regions, traveling far for disaster efforts is just part of what they do.
Latoysa Rooks, Michigan regional disaster officer, said they already have 66 volunteers working on disaster and recovery efforts around the clock in the affected areas of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“We are racing against the clock just to ensure that we have our volunteers ready, that we have those shelters staffed and those relief supplies ready to go,” said Rooks.
Some of those members are now pivoting to Hurricane Milton less than two weeks after Helene. They include Michigan volunteer Harold West, who’s been with the nonprofit for seven years.
“I started in Tallahassee, but now I’ve moved down to Tampa, and my mission has changed considerably. If this storm is going to be what they’re predicting, they’re going to be some people that really need the services that we’re going to provide. So we’re going to focus on getting to those most impacted areas,” said West.
He said this will be his seventh deployment.