World Vision Scales Up Emergency Response Efforts Along East Coast to Hurricane Sandy

NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As hundreds of thousands of East Coast residents evacuate to seek shelter from Hurricane Sandy, the Christian humanitarian relief organization World Vision is scaling up its emergency response to provide immediate relief supplies to families and children impacted by the storm. Three rapid assessment teams will deploy in New York, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia this week while additional staff will remain on standby to begin distributing emergency supplies to the hardest-hit areas. 

On Monday, World Vision's staff at the organization's New York City site in the Bronx were forced to evacuate after rising flood waters from the East River threatened to close nearby bridges and leave World Vision staff stranded and unable to respond. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 pre-positioned relief supplies at the New York City field site have been elevated to higher ground within World Vision's warehouse to avoid water damage.

"It's not ideal, but we felt it was necessary to evacuate our staff and seek shelter closer to Manhattan so we wouldn't be stranded ourselves," said Phyllis Freeman, World Vision's Domestic Disaster Director. "We unplugged electrical equipment and put all the relief supplies up higher, but we're not sure when our response teams will be able to access the site if the river continues to rise."

World Vision has additional relief supplies strategically positioned at its Washington, D.C. site and at the National Domestic Disaster Headquarters in North Texas. On Monday, several hundred blankets and emergency kits were sent from the North Texas site to arrive this week at World Vision's sites along the East Coast.

World Vision's pre-positioned relief supplies include emergency food kits, cleaning supplies, hygiene items, blankets and tarps. This year, World Vision has responded to several U.S. disasters, including Hurricane Isaac, wildfires in Oklahoma and tornadoes in Texas.

In 2011, World Vision responded to 6 disasters in the United States benefiting nearly 40,000 people. In 2005, World Vision responded to Hurricane Katrina by opening a temporary 40,000-square-foot distribution center in New Orleans where $8.2 million in goods were distributed to more than 318,000 survivors.  Freeman, a veteran aid worker, was among those with World Vision called upon to respond and says the organization's strategy to build a Domestic Disaster Headquarters in the Dallas-area near the Gulf Coast was a direct result of the lessons learned from Katrina.

For more information about World Vision's U.S. disaster response work, visit www.worldvision.org.

About World Vision World Vision:

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. World Vision serves the world's poor regardless of a person's religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information please visit www.worldvision.org/press.  Or follow them on Twitter at @worldvisionnews.

SOURCE World Vision