Today’s post contributed by Brittany Thomas – Coordinator, External AffairsMore than one week after Superstorm Sandy made landfall on the eastern coast of the United States, thousands of residents are still feeling the effects. Half a million New Jersey residents are still without power, New York is just beginning to restart its mass transportation and significant portions of the coast have been washed away – from homes to the Jersey shore boardwalk.Meanwhile, West Virginia is facing a very different task: digging out and recovering from a massive blizzard. As Sandy came inland last week she met up with a storm system already over the state which caused some areas to see up to two feet of snow by mid-week. While temperatures dip into the low 30s at night, the storm has left thousands without power for over a week as relief organizations work to provide residents with blankets, a hot meal and a warm place to stay.To help out with the recovery, Cabot made a $5,000 donation to the West Virginia Region American Red Cross to use in the areas affected. I traveled down to Charleston on Monday to delivery the donation and met volunteers from as far as Alaska who had come to help in whatever way possible.Becky Howard, the Chief Development Officer for the American Red Cross, WV Region, gave me a tour of the operation’s headquarters where all volunteer operations from food drop off to delivery to housing to mental services are coordinated. It was truly inspiring to watch the volunteers at work with such determination to help those in need.Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by the storms last week. If you would like to make a donation to the disaster relief, please visit the American Red Cross website. All donations are currently being matched up to $1 million dollars by a several organizations.From the website:
To add much needed support to the devastation caused by Sandy, The Weather Company and its principal owners and investors Bain Capital, Blackstone and NBC Universal are generously matching all donations of our viewers and users of our brands — The Weather Channel, weather.com, Weather Underground and Intellicast — up to 1 million dollars.
