Red Cross volunteer going to Florida to help those affected by Hurricane Helene

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – One local volunteer is heading into the eye of the storm to provide a calming presence to those affected.

Deane Oliva does what is called spiritual care for the American Red Cross.

What that means is while volunteers are helping recover what has been lost, people like her can talk with those who’ve lost everything.

We caught up with Oliva today, who tells us how unsung and important people like her are when disaster strikes.

“Most of the people that work with disasters are working to do something with and for people, they don’t have that time to sit and talk, to sit and breathe, to sit and grieve… and so our job is to give them that sanction to just calm down… sit there… and sometimes that’s what we do. We sit with them,” she says.

Oliva plans to make her way to Florida on Friday to begin her work. We wish all crews and volunteers who are on the way to help those affected by Hurricane Helene the best and hope for a safe return.