Entering her thirteenth day of deployment to the Hurricane Helene disaster response in Florida, Mahogany Coward of Canton is a brave woman.
“It’s been a doozy. This is probably my fifth shelter,” Coward stated.
Coward, an American Red Cross volunteer in Northern Ohio, was in Tallahassee on September 26, the day Hurricane Helene made landfall.
“People just now, out of that time, getting their electricity and power back on. The devastating part is now they can see the real damage,” Coward stated.
Any respite, though, was fleeting as word spread that Hurricane Milton had rapidly strengthened into a hurricane on Sunday, with its course pointed directly on Florida’s west coast.
“For it to be landing possibly Tuesday, early Wednesday is devastating. We haven’t even begun the cleanup. The power just came back on” Coward stated.
The Hurricane Helene disaster response has at least six Northern Ohio disaster professionals assigned to it. Coward is presently housed in a Jacksonville, Florida, evacuation shelter.
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She stated that in order to help preserve what little is left, residents are receiving roof tarps from the authorities.
“To have Milton come through and trample on power lines that just been restored, my heart goes out to them, ” Coward stated.
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