GREEN VALLEY, Ariz. (KGUN) — When Hurricane Ian hit South Florida two months ago, Red Cross volunteers signed up to fly down and help families recover from the devastation. One man from Green Valley had to stay longer than he expected, but got home just in time for Thanksgiving after helping strangers from square one.
Emmet McGuire arrived in Fort Myers on Oct. 22 to help families affected by Hurricane Ian, 2 weeks later while he was sleeping, the unimaginable happened.
“And then Hurricane Nicole hit... a lot of major storm damage there, from high water storm surge as well as high wind," said McGuire.
McGuire was a part of the disaster assessment team where he was amongst thousands of volunteers across the nation looking at home damage, ranking it mild to severe and then reporting back to file a claim.
He says the photos and videos we see of the water damage simply does not do it justice compared to what he saw in person. The days were long but well worth it for McGuire. Working 8 hours, 8 days in a row for weeks on end and he says that there's still so much work to get done.
McGuire has been back in Arizona for a week and is already thinking about going back. The Red Cross desperately needs more volunteers, especially here in Southern Arizona, to help locally and nationally. For more on how to volunteer, visit Red Cross of Southern Arizona's website.
“Well I would hope that there are no more disasters, if there are, I am ready to go.”
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Brooke Chau is a reporter for KGUN 9. She was a part of Fresno State's newscast, Fresno State Focus and interned at KFSN-ABC30 in Fresno, CA before coming to KGUN 9. Share your story ideas and important issues with Brooke by emailing brooke.chau@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
