NY Volunteers Driving Red Cross ERVs To Hurricane Harvey Relief Effort

American Red Cross volunteers from the Hudson Valley left Monday to help victims of Hurricane Harvey Monday afternoon, driving Emergency Response Vehicles filled with supplies. Two of the four are a husband and wife from Rockland County.

ERVs deliver food and critical supplies to affected communities. Montebello residents Linda and Brian McMullan are in one this afternoon, headed out of New York on the long drive south.

More than half the American Red Cross emergency response fleet — more than 150 vehicles — have been mobilized to help the residents in Texas and Louisiana recover from the impact of Hurricane Harvey. The first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charley in 2004, Harvey is bringing life-threatening and devastating damage to the Gulf Coast and areas far inland. The Red Cross has mobilized a massive relief effort to provide shelter, food and comfort.

"We are driving an Emergency Response Vehicle, a canteen type, to a staging area in Baton Rouge," Linda said in a call from the road. "From there we will be assigned to another area. we don't know where that will be yet."

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The ERV that Brian's driving is full of supplies. The team mission is to distribute food and supplies, "as well as assist in going into neighborhoods to do damage assessment and things of that nature," Linda said.

All of the Red Cross trucks coming from east of the Mississippi River are convening in Baton Rouge. West of the Mississippi, they're going to Austin, Texas, she said.

"They're not encouraging anyone to drive into the Houston area," Linda said.

This is the first national deployment for the McMullans, both of whom are now retired — Linda from Rockland County Department of Social Services and Brian from a telecommunications company.

"Brian and I have assisted locally in Rockland County with fires and in the greater NY region with setting up shelters, for example during hurricanes Irene and Sandy," Linda said. "And it's been rewarding locally to go out to different communities in Rockland and Westchester to help people who've been in fires and lost so much."

Linda, 64, started volunteering with the Red Cross right after 9/11. Brian, 67, started about four years after that, since Linda was going out to fires in the middle of the night. He particularly liked the shelter work. They've taken many Red Cross volunteer training courses over the years. For this deployment, they got training in driving the ERV, brushed up their food service training and got training on psychological first aid in case they become directly involved with any Harvey victims, to provide some level of comfort,

When Linda called, the convoy had left Red Cross offices in Hawthorne and was in Rockland County headed over 287 to Route 81. Why are they doing it?

"It's been said that we would certainly want someone to assist us," she said.

PHOTO: Brian McMullan at the wheel of a Red Cross ERV headed to the Hurricane Harvey disaster area. Photo credit: Linda McMullan.

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