Red Cross Spox on Irma: ‘This Type of Disaster Is Bigger than Any One Agency’

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring in Craig Cooper right now, a spokesperson with the Red Cross.

Craig, I think you’re coming to us from Miami this morning?

CRAIG COOPER, SPOKESPERSON, THE RED CROSS: Good morning, George.

Yes. I’m over near Miami International Airport.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And tell us exactly what you all are dealing with right now.

COOPER: Well, you know, we are — you know, we are very, very busy group. The Red Cross has been gearing up for this storm for the better part of a week. We have well over 1,000, probably 1,500 volunteers and responders from in state as well as out of state.

You know, obviously everybody initially was anticipating that the storm was going to track toward the east side of the state. I came down to Miami to help support the activities here. But the beauty, of course, of the Red Cross system is that it’s very scalable. And we have shelters and evacuation centers open all over the state. In fact, in six states down in the southeastern United States.

STEPHANOPOULOS: There had been some concern earlier in the week in Miami that you had run out of volunteers. Do you have the kind of resources, do you have the people you need?

COOPER: Well, you know this type of disaster is bigger than any one agency, so the short answer, George, is yes, the Red Cross certainly does have the human resources that we need. We partner very well with the county and state agencies.

Florida does a phenomenal job of staffing up and operating their own shelters and evacuation centers. So, here in Florida, it is very much a partner operation.

But we do have many, many people here on the ground that are, you know, in place, waiting for the storm to pass. We have over 200 of our emergency response vehicles that are ready to go, tractor trailer loads full of supplies that are staged and ready to be brought into the disaster zone as soon as it’s safe to do so.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What is your greatest need right now? And how can people watching at home help?

COOPER: Well, George, right now, the key thing really is financial support. We know that people in this kind of situation, they rush to their pantry, they rush to their closet to see what type of donations they can make and put on a box truck and send down to the disaster zones. And that is a noble and very good cause.

But the best thing to do to help the Red Cross is a financial donation. You can do it very easily by going to RedCross.org, you can call 1-800-RED-CROSS. But the easiest way of all is just to text 90999, put the word Irma into the text, and you’ll make a $10 donation that’s charged back to your cell phone. And we do honor donor intent, so the funds that you designate for Irma will be used for Irma relief.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that can make a big difference.

Craig Cooper, thank you very much.