Volunteers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey head to the Gulf Coast ahead of Hurricane Laura

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Volunteers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey head to Gulf Coast ahead of Hurricane Laura

FOX 29's Chris O'Connell reports.

Volunteers from our area are heading to the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Laura continues to rapidly strengthen. The "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane now has maximum sustained winds near 150 mph.

Interrupted by tornado warnings while sitting in his Baton Rouge hotel room Wednesday, Red Cross volunteer Chris Evans from Ardmore is waiting for Hurricane Laura to make landfall so he can get to work.

Evans is one of about a dozen American Red Cross volunteers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey deployed this week to the Gulf coast ahead of Laura's landfall.  It's Evans first disaster deployment.

“So I’ll be working at a shelter providing quite literally beds and a roof to those who have evacuated and displaced from their homes,” Evans said.

Volunteers are expected to spend the next two weeks on the ground and they need to get there before the storm hits.

"It’s on the heels of Marco so these areas are already saturated with rain, it’s what we do. It’s why the Red Cross is there. People depend on the brand. People depend on the volunteers to be there during their darkest hour,” American Red Cross regional CEO Guy Triano said.

RELATED:

"Extremely dangerous" Hurricane Laura keeps strengthening with winds at 150 mph

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