Elkhart man helping Harvey victims in Texas

ELKHART, Ind. -- An Elkhart man is one of several Michiana Red Cross volunteers who traveled down to Texas to help those in need after Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey.

Verne Searer flew out of South Bend on Sunday to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He was originally set to fly into Houston, but his flight was rescheduled three times before being rerouted.

Though he’s not near the high floodwaters in the greater Houston area, he said over the phone on Monday that thousands of victims are coming to Dallas-Fort Worth to stay in shelters.

“The most important thing is keep people comfortable and keep people safe,” he said, speaking from a shelter he was working in on Monday.

“They really didn’t expect the depth of the water to be so bad; some really crazy areas that they didn’t figure the water – it’s a lot like South Bend, when we had the flood on the south side of South Bend up on the hills [in 2016].”

Searer plans to stay in Texas volunteering for the next two weeks.

He said he and his fellow Red Cross volunteers in Dallas-Fort Worth were helping set up a sports arena that will hold up to 5,000 flooding victims.

Searer – who’s been a member of the Elkhart Red Cross for about five years – said the best way you can help out those in Texas is by donating to the Red Cross or by visiting your local Red Cross office and seeing what help they need.

You can donate by clicking here, by calling 1-800-Red-Cross, or you can text ‘Harvey’ to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

And you can find out more information about the Northern Indiana Red Cross offices by clicking here.