Nebraska Volunteers Help with Isaac

By: Bill Steckis & Associated Press Email

Updated: Wed 7:33 AM, Aug 29, 2012

Hurricane Isaac is well on its way to the Gulf Coast states and so are the final two of 24 Nebraska Red Cross volunteers. They left Tuesday afternoon, their destination will range from Florida to Louisiana. They say it's just what they do.

"It's 96 percent of everything the Red Cross does is done by volunteers so the biggest thing we can do is recruiting, training and preparing folks so when things like this happen, we have people ready to go," said Susan Epps, Executive Director of the Lincoln Chapter of the American Red Cross.

"I do look forward to it. This is my 4th year and my 7th disaster. Most of them have been water related, floods and hurricanes. So it's all been different, everyone I've been on," said Cheri Belger, Red Cross volunteer.

Hurricane Isaac is beginning to move inland in southeast Louisiana and remains a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

The U.S. national Hurricane center in Miami said before dawn Wednesday that Isaac's center was expected to pass over Louisiana Wednesday and Thursday and on to Arkansas early Friday. It will weaken over the next two days as it passes over land.

Isaac came ashore Tuesday night near the mouth of the Mississippi River, then went nearly stationary for several hours over the sparsely populated neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico. It was headed for New Orleans, 70 miles to the northwest, on the seventh anniversary of Katrina

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