Maricopa Red Cross volunteer headed to Florida

Three volunteers from the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter are deploying to Orlando, with the possibility of providing relief for a tropical storm that could soon intensify into a hurricane in advance of an anticipated landfall in Florida early next week.

Highlighting the Red Cross message of preparing for a disaster before it strikes, disaster assessment worker Regina Crandall, 48, of Maricopa, departed Friday. Vic Hencken, 64, of Prescott, left Thursday as a job deputy director while Larry Webb, 63, of Chandler, also a disaster assessment worker takes off Saturday.

With top winds of 65 mph, Tropical Storm Isaac has passed over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and it’s forecast to make landfall Friday night in Haiti and Saturday night in Cuba before touching southwestern Florida on Monday, according to projections by the National Hurricane Center.

It’s the first national deployment for Crandall, a Pinal County disaster action team member who began volunteering for the Red Cross last August.

“We’re going down early and not waiting for (the hurricane) to happen,” Crandall said. “We’re proactive, as opposed to reactive.”

Webb added that “it’s rewarding to know that you’re helping someone. You don’t see who you’re helping. But you know that you’re helping someone.”

Hencken has volunteered for the Red Cross with his wife, Flo, for the past 11 years. He’s certified as a shelter manager and as an emergency response vehicle driver, and he worked the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008. He also has been deployed by the Red Cross for other hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as for tornadoes, floods and wildfires.

Webb started with the Red Cross in 2009, and as a disaster action team member stationed in the East Valley, he has logged more than 5,000 volunteer hours. He responded to flooding last year in Memphis, Tenn., and this summer, he went to Montana for wildfires.