Effects Of Sandy Felt In South Dakota

by Joel Young, Meteorologist/Reporter
October 30, 2012 5:24 PM


If you have been keeping up with the weather over the past couple of days, all eyes have been on the storm that slammed the East Coast Monday night.

While Sandy made landfall over a thousand miles away from South Dakota, the effects are also being felt here.

This storm brought all types of weather. Storm surge caused major damage along the Jersey Shore. Strong winds blasted through the streets of New York City. Heavy rain fell throughout the Northeast and even snow fell in the higher elevations of the Appalachians from Tennessee to Pennsylvania. Without a question, Sandy will be a storm for the history books.

Even though weather in the Sioux Empire was not impacted, the storm is still causing some inconveniences—especially with air travel.

“We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get out of Sioux Falls, so we reserved a motel room for the night. Luckily, it looks like my flight’s going to go out today, so I have cancelled my reservation,” says James Piggott, a pheasant hunter who was making his way home to Lynchburg, Virginia Tuesday morning.

But flight cancellations won’t be stopping the American Red Cross. They have an Emergency Response Vehicle of their own.

“We just got it back from Isaac and now, we’ll gear it up again to send it out to Hurricane Sandy,” says Samantha Hill of the Sioux Empire American Red Cross.

Tuesday morning, the local chapter was officially put on stand-by. Volunteers will be ready to go immediately, once it is deemed safe to travel into areas impacted by the storm.

Once the emergency response vehicle makes it to the East Coast, they’ll be passing out buckets of cleaning supplies to families who have lost their homes due to the high storm surge. If you were affected by last year’s flooding along the Missouri River, you are probably familiar with these buckets provided by the Red Cross.

But that’s just one thing volunteers from South Dakota will be doing during the two weeks they’ve committed to helping those in need.

“They’ll be doing things like feeding and sheltering, case work, mental health service, health services; so depending on what their activity is with the Red Cross, and you’re trained in, that’s what you’ll be deployed for,” says Hill.

The American Red Cross is accepting donations at this time. However, they ask that all donations be made monetarily so goods can be purchased in bulk.

To donate, you can visit the American Red Cross website at www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RedCross. You may also make a donation of $10 by simply texting “RedCross” to the number, 9099; or you may visit any of the Red Cross chapters across the region.