Beaumont – The American Red Cross opened an additional shelter for people who need to leave their homes because of the floods affecting Southeast Texas. The shelter is located inside the North Orange Baptist Church, 4775 North 16^th Street, Orange, Texas and opened mid-day Monday March 14, 2016. Currently the Red Cross is focusing on several counties including but not limited to Montgomery, Orange, Newton and Jasper Counties. The opening of this shelter is the latest part of that effort.

The organization’s major priorities include supporting sheltering and feeding, and soon shift to the coordination of relief supply distribution over the next week with emergency management partners. “This is an a-typical flood,” said Eric Jones of the American Red Cross. “Most floods rise and fall in a few days. This one is more challenging because it will rise and remain high for the next 3-5 days. We remain committed to meeting the emergency disaster needs of our Southeast Texas communities.”

Because of the nature of this flood event, the American Red Cross anticipates that more shelters in the “Golden Triangle” of Southeast, Texas will open before the end of the week. “We encourage those who are in the potential evacuation zones to remain vigilant and tuned to their local media for details and important news about this flood event.” Jones advised.

People can help by donating to Red Cross Disaster Relief to support disasters big and small by visitingredcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.