No Mid-Missouri Red Cross volunteers called to Arkansas

As of Monday the Mid-Missouri Red Cross chapter is waiting to send volunteers to the Arkansas area.

The local Arkansas chapter is providing care to those affected with the help of the national American Red Cross.

“What we try to do when we have a local disaster like we do there is for that chapter to handle it the best they can,” said David Griffith with the mid-Missouri’s Red Cross chapter.

Monday, the American Red Cross has two shelters in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma.

More than 200 people slept in Arkansas’ shelters Sunday night, with the local Red Cross volunteers providing food, water and care to those in need.

In Missouri the local chapters are trying to help by giving money.

“They have asked all of us to do what we can to help raise money to send down there,” said Griffith.

The Red Cross is not alone.

Convoy of Hope is a faith based relief organization out of Springfield, Missouri.

Monday afternoon Convoy of Hope sent three teams to the disaster area to assess how many volunteers are needed.

“What we do is work first with the local teams in that local area so we don’t have to work on housing them,” said Jeff Nene with Convoy of Hope.

He told ABC 17 News the out-of-state volunteers could put a strain on Arkansas’ business with too many people needing hotel rooms and filling up their restaurants.

“They’ll get in touch with our team out in Springfield about what type of products if any we would want to ship to each location,” said Nene.

The local food bank has not been asked for help yet either.