Chicago area volunteers head to Florida ahead of Hurricane Helene

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Ahead of Hurricane Helene making landfall, several Red Cross volunteers from the Chicago area are in Florida.

The American Red Cross is rapidly mobilizing volunteers and relief supplies as Helene bears down on communities in the Florida panhandle, bringing catastrophic storm surge, winds and flooding.

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One of the more than 360 trained disaster workers in route now is Mt. Prospect native Pattie Eakin.

The retired teacher was deployed to Tampa Wednesday night to help those in need, as Helene makes landfall.

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While Eakin has volunteered at Red Cross shelters in Chicago, this will be her first time deploying to a disaster, as a volunteer.

"I am honored that the Red Cross is providing this opportunity for me that I can then go and help people, because this all started back when Katrina came about," Eakin said. "As a lot of people wanted to do at the time, I really wanted to go down and help those poor people down in Katrina. At the time of the crisis, that's not the time to be signing up to help because you have to be trained."

Eakin said she's gone through extensive training the past year with the Red Cross and she's ready for whatever comes.

Her experience as a high school teacher managing large groups of people and thinking quickly on her feet will help in this case.

Several hospitals in Florida were evacuated Thursday night as Hurricane Helene was upgraded to a Category 4 storm.

Tampa General Hospital closed and evacuated two hospitals and other facilities. Earlier this week, the hospitals took extreme measures, installing an AquaFence to keep patients safe by diverting flood waters.

Storm surges there expected to reach 8 feet, and up to 20 feet in the Big Bend region. The storm's impact expected to stretch across several states, including Georgia.

Kevin Adams from Waukegan with the American Red Cross is on standby to deploy to Macon.

"They're expecting up to 15 inches of rain, so there's going to be plenty of flooding and stuff," Adams said. "So there's going to be some displaced residents there... We, like we've heard, we refer to them as clients or survivors, so we house them and just try to comfort them and give them whatever they need to make it through this."

The American Red Cross says six Illinois region volunteers have deployed or, like Kevin, are deploying to assist with hurricane relief efforts and that number is expected to grow.