More than 200 Akron-area residents have or are being dispatched to the East Coast to help with disaster relief.
That includes an Ohio Army National Guard unit based at the Akron-Canton Airport that learned Friday it will be sent to the New York City borough of Brooklyn today.
Guard spokesman James Sims said about 170 members of the 1484th Transportation Company and about 30 soldiers from other Ohio units will be deployed to Floyd Bennett Field.
Soldiers will use the park “as a staging area to distribute food and water throughout New York City,” for as long as two weeks, Sims said. The unit has access to up to 120 trucks but it was unclear Friday how many it would take in its third deployment since 2004. So far, it is the only Guard unit in Ohio to be sent to hurricane relief.
Meanwhile, the Summit County chapter of the American Red Cross has sent a fourth volunteer to the disaster zone.
The latest volunteer is a government liaison specialist stationed in New York who is helping to coordinate Red Cross relief efforts with local governments and agencies. Three sent earlier this week went to New Jersey and New York to help provide mass shelter and feeding.
They are among 15 Northeast Ohio volunteers who have been dispatched to the six-state disaster area for stints of as long as three weeks.
As the relief efforts are expected to last for several weeks, “We will likely begin rotating volunteers in and out,” Red Cross spokesman Michael Taylor said.
The Summit County chapter of the Salvation Army probably will be sending volunteers in coming weeks, spokeswoman Stella Dilik said.