Red Cross Hawaii sends 13 to help Harvey victims

Paul Klink of Honolulu is among the 13 volunteers from Red Cross Hawaii deploying to Texas and Louisiana to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Klink was scheduled to leave late Monday for a two-week deployment to Texas to assist with opening, coordination and overall management of mega-shelters in Houston. Thirteen volunteers are assisting, including five from Oahu, five from Hawaii island, two from Maui and one from Molokai. Eight had already deployed as of Sunday.

“I’m there for the people of Hawaii, as a steward of aloha, and am very aware of that,” Klink told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I’ll try to leave a bit of aloha with everyone I meet.”

He said he was motivated to go as a way of “paying it forward for all the blessings and gifts people have given me in my life.”

Klink, 52, has been with Red Cross Hawaii since 2012 as a disaster action team captain and shelter manager and said he recently assisted victims of the Marco Polo fire at the ‘Iolani School shelter. He also assisted with the Oroville Dam evacuations in California earlier this year and with Tropical Storm Iselle in Pahoa in 2014.

“I’m very familiar with flood conditions with the experience in California,” he said, “and dealing with tropical storms, hurricanes and floods. … So we bring a certain calm and we bring the aloha spirit.”

The Hawaii volunteers, among more than hundreds from across the U.S. who are on the ground in Houston, are assisting with damage assessment, disaster mental health services, bulk distribution, feeding and a variety of relief efforts. More Hawaii volunteers are on standby for deployment.

More than 1,800 people took refuge from the deadly storm starting Saturday night in 34 Red Cross and community shelters in Texas, while one shelter in Louisiana opened for eight people.

The numbers of those seeking shelter are expected to grow as Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day Monday following a weekend of rising water and rescues, with floodwaters reaching the rooflines of single-story homes, according to Associated Press reports.

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard tweeted a message of thanks to lifesaving first responders and volunteers in Texas and Louisiana on Monday.

She also urged her supporters in a mass email to consider making a donation to the Houston Food Bank, the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, the American Red Cross or other local disaster relief organizations of their choosing.

“This disaster will take years to recover from, but our collective spirit is stronger than the wind or the rain,” she said in the email. “Let us live aloha and show the people of Texas that they are not alone and not forgotten. We are here for them.”

Hawaii residents can help people affected by Hurricane Harvey at redcross.org; call 800-REDCROSS or text the word HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation. The Humane Society of the United States also deployed its animal rescue team to Texas and set up a disaster relief fund at humanesociety.org.