Frankfort Red Cross volunteer Paul Bamman leaves for Hawaii to help devastated victims
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A south suburban man is on his way to Hawaii, where he will spend three weeks with wildfire disaster relief through the American Red Cross.
CBS 2's Sara Machi spoke with him as he arrived at the airport Friday morning.
Paul Bamman is in Detroit on his layover before a flight to Honolulu. He leaves any minute now. He doesn't know where exactly where he will be working or sleeping. He hopes to find that out when he checks in at the Red Cross Honolulu headquarters Friday afternoon.
But one thing he does know: they need his help.
CBS 2 spoke with Bamman as he checked in for his flight Friday. The Frankfort resident said when he gets to Hawaii, he will be on a logistics team tasked with ensuring shelters and residents have everything they need.
He has volunteered with the Red Cross for five years, covering other natural disasters, but this is his first deadly wildfire and his first time in Hawaii. He said knows from prior experience that these disasters always exceed expectations.
"I am going out in what is the first wave of volunteers to hit Maui and to help people, so we don't have the infrastructure going there yet. But every day, there are people from the Red Cross going out there, and within the next few days, we will have an organization built up and ready to go that will get everything organized for the next weeks and months," Bammon said.
Bamman is the first to volunteer with the local Red Cross, but the organization expects to deploy many more. But it's a fluid situation, and it's still working out many details.
