Harvey help — NJ welcoming Texas shelter dogs you can adopt soon

TRENTON — More Red Cross volunteers left New Jersey for Texas on Tuesday, and shelter dogs are expected to arrive in Morristown on Tuesday night.

Four volunteers, including one coming off root canal surgery and another using his vacation time from work, started a two-day trip to bring two emergency response vehicles to Texas.

Ana Montero, CEO of the American Red Cross New Jersey Region, said the group will be driving through neighborhoods carrying food, water and other supplies as evacuated families return to their homes. Nineteen volunteers from New Jersey have been in Texas since Friday and more have offered to go if needed.

"The volunteers right now are focusing on sheltering. We have shelters being set up depending on what the need is and where the need is," Montero said.

There is also attention give to the volunteers to make sure they take care of themselves.

"We make sure they are trained on psychological first aid. We have teams that are deployed making sure that our volunteers and  other disaster workers are taking care of each other," Montero said.

Montero is proud to see the volunteers to be so committed to helping others in need.

"We had a volunteer who's taking vacation time to be down there. Another volunteer who's responded to many, many other disasters across the country coming yet again to help. We even had a volunteer who got out of root canal surgery not too long ago and decided he still wanted to help," Montero said.

The water rescue unit of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management's Task Force One will join the rescue effort on Tuesday in San Antonio with more units ready to go.

"We are on standby to send additional teams. We can send another water rescue team or send the entire as we did in Matthew. That would be more of an 80-member team depending on what they request. Bags packed, Is dotted, Ts crossed, just waiting for FEMA to let us know. We're ready to answer the call," NJ OEM spokeswoman Laura Connolly said.

New Jersey is also lending a hand to the four legged who need help.

A flight from San Antonio is expected to arrive at Morristown Airport at 7 p.m. Tuesday night with at least 78 dogs, according to Hearther Cammisa, executive director of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison.

Cammisa said the dogs were be divided between the Monmouth County SPCA, Animal Alliance in Lambertville, Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, Father John's Animal Shelter in Sparta, the Somerset Regional Animal Shelter and some shelters in New Engalnd. The individual shelters will put the dogs up for adoption.

"The Humane Society of the United States is down there coordinating all of their emergency placement partners across the country and we are one of them and that's how we were initially contacted," Cammisa said.

The San Antonio Animal Care and Services has taken in hundreds of animal since Harvey  began affecting South Texas on Friday. Cammisa said that by taking in the dogs they are helping free up space in San Antonio.

Rutgers University said it is trying to contact students from Texas and "connect them with the appropriate resources" if they have been impacted by Harvey.

"Our deepest sympathies go out to those affected by the crisis, and we offer our strong support to our colleagues at the many institutions of higher education in Texas who are coping with this tragedy," the university said in its statement.

Are you originally from New Jersey and now in East Texas or Louisiana? Please contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com