UMF student part of Red Cross disaster team returns home from Texas

FARMINGTON  – Earlier this week, Emily Armour and Daniele Hardré returned home to Bangor after spending two weeks in Beaumont and Orange, Texas, assisting hundreds of people as they recovered from the devastating floods in the South.

Armour, a senior at the University of Maine at Farmington, is a student-intern with the Red Cross in Maine who has been volunteering with the organization since the beginning of the year.

Daniele Hardré of Bangor, is a Red Cross Disaster program manager based out of the Bangor office and is responsible for training, recruiting and engaging volunteers in the northern and eastern region of the state. Armour and Hardré joined more than 2,400 Red Cross workers who have been providing overnight stays in shelters, serving hot meals and distributing relief items to thousands of individuals impacted by flooding in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Deployed to Texas on March 24 and March 25, both women returned home to Bangor on April 7.

During her time in Texas, Armour acted in a casework supervisor capacity assisting Red Cross staff identify and travel to the homes of flood victims who were unable to leave their residence because of medical reasons. The UMF student was a multi-agency resource centers site director in Trout Creek, Bon Weir and Orange, Texas. Her responsibility included educating and connecting flood victims with the various Red Cross financial and material resources available to them, including providing clean up supplies, drinking water and meals.

Since the flooding began just over a month ago, almost 12,600 homes have been destroyed or heavily damaged. The Red Cross has been providing shelter, food and relief supplies to help families who have lost their homes and everything they own in these devastating floodwaters.