SPRINGFIELD, MA (WSHM) -
"We have strong gusty winds, 45 to 50 mph gusts in our area, Red Cross vehicles have been taken off the road," said Red Cross volunteer and Southampton native, Don Cawrse.
He described the conditions over the phone to CBS 3 that he and millions of others are living in as Tropical Storm Isaac bashes the Gulf Coast.
The three-year Red Cross veteran has been down south since Friday, helping those affected in Florida, before moving to Hattiesburg, MS, where he is now helping operate a shelter.
"We're like everyone else, we're waiting for Isaac to move so we can do the work that we're down here to do," he said.
Tuesday night the severe weather forced about 5,200 people to move into Red Cross-run shelters across six states. Wednesday night that number was expected to rise.
Cawrse, who is part of a damage assessment team, will venture out after the wind and rain die down to begin helping people move back into their homes.
"When the weather clears, we will begin to go out into the impacted areas and begin to do damage assessment," he said.
It's an unpredictable job that means Cawrse could be done by the weekend, but it could take much longer depending on the scale of the damage done to people's homes.
"We could be here two to three weeks," he said.
But Cawrse says as demanding as the job is, he and his Western Mass counterparts continue to be stunned by the resilience of those in the face of the damaging storm.
"We had one woman come in who was blind and she had a seeing eye dog with her, and she was very inspiring to me, it made me feel good that I could assist her but also that she made me feel stronger about what I'll be able to do in the future," he said.
Anyone wishing to donate can visit Pioneer Valley Red Cross.
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