Major storms ripped through Emanuel County Saturday night, damaging or destroying 30 homes. The Savannah Chapter of the American Red Cross has volunteers assisting families in Twin Cities and Adrian.

“We have deployed our ERV (emergency response vehicle) from Screven County and our ERV from Chatham County to assist our volunteers with this response,” said John Wright, director of emergency services. “We are supporting our Emanuel county DAT (disaster action teams) with DAT members from Tattnall, Effingham and Chatham counties. We also still have DAT members from Long, Liberty and Chatham counties working a canteen with our Hinesville based ERV at the wildfire in Long County. You could say we’re pretty busy right now.”

The Savannah Chapter of the American Red Cross has opened a service center in Adrian, inside the Adrian Arts Academy. “When you have an event of this magnitude you can distribute the aid more quickly if you set up a service center,” said Dan Mobley, long time Chatham County DAT leader. “We thank the Adrian Arts Academy for opening their doors to us and their neighbors this Sunday.”

A Red Cross Service Center allows Red Cross volunteers to assist multiple families at the same time from one central location, making the aid distribution process more efficient.

 “This relief operation will be costly, so we are going to need additional public support to replenish our reserves,” said Wright. To make a donation to the Savannah Chapter of the American Red Cross, simply call (912) 651.5371 or go online to www.savannahredcross.org.

The Savannah Chapter of the American Red Cross serves Chatham, Effingham, Bryan, Liberty, Long, Emanuel, Screven, Tatnall and Evans counties.