Volunteers in South Florida are stepping up to help those affected by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) will send the first shipment of family necessity kits in the next 48 hours.
"We fortified partnerships during our involvement with Hurricane Maria so that allows us to act much more swiftly and quicker with this disaster and so we'll move in faster than we could have then and get goods into the hands of people in all areas of Puerto Rico," said Emily Fullmer, COO of the Global Empowerment Mission.
Three members of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Urban Search and Rescue team have also been deployed to Puerto Rico. This team will support local responders with the integration of all search and rescue teams as well as logistics.
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Puerto Ricans in South Florida are keeping a close eye on the effects of Hurricane Fiona.
They told NBC 6 they're very concerned about the power outages because many were in the dark for months after Hurricane Maria.
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"I'm worried about my father. He's a career veteran and 92 years old. And he's in Ponce of all places," said Luis de Rosa, President of the South Florida Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce.
The Global Empowerment Mission is accepting donations at their warehouse at 1810 NW 94th Avenue, Doral, FL.
At the moment, members of GEM say people in both islands will be most in need of generators and water purification systems.
If you'd like to donate to GEM for Hurricane Fiona relief you can do so by clicking here.
The vice mayor of Doral, who is from the Dominican Republic, also stopped by the GEM headquarters to help build partnerships with organizations on the island.
"I'm asking for medications, blankets, clothes, not much, but really, underwear that has to be new," Vice Mayor Digna Cabral said.
GEM is also in need of volunteers from 10 a.m. to 4 pm. Monday to Saturday.
