Moon Woman Comes to Aid of Pennsylvania Flood Victims

The American Red Cross has dispatched a Moon Township woman to aid flood victims in eastern Pennsylvania. 

Volunteer Mary White was deployed last week to Hazleton, Luzerne County, where the agency has established an outpost to help communities still ravaged by recent flooding in parts of New Jersey, New York and Eastern Pennsylvania. 

White will remain in the area until Friday, providing staff planning and support. 

Flooding, mudslides and downed trees have kept much of eastern Pennsylvania in gridlock after the Susquehanna River spilled over its banks earlier this month. 

"It's still pretty serious here," White said. "There are still bridges out. We've had people from [Red Cross] public affairs out taking photos of the damage." 

White, a three-year Red Cross volunteer, said her job with the organization is to "not only take care of the victims, but also take care of the volunteers."

She serves as the head of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Red Cross' disaster action team. She said earlier this month that she had received the call for deployment and within hours she was on her way to Hazleton, where the organization has set up a command center for relief work.  

"Within 24 hours there were [volunteers] here from all over," White said while driving to Red Cross offices in Hazleton. "We've got volunteers from Massachusetts, Virginia, California." 

In Hazleton, White is responsible for coordinating the travel of other volunteers as well as arranging their work assignments and lodging during their stint in Eastern Pennsylvania. She's staying in a nearby hotel during the deployment. 

White said she became involved with the Red Cross after retiring from her administrative assistant position three years ago. 

"I like just the fact that I am able to help people," she said. "It just makes me feel good that when they're just really depressed what we do is help out."