Final day for Red Cross emergency operations

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With Red Cross finishing their emergency response today, a large number of people turned up today at the Red Cross Center at the VA Center before closing time at noon.

All of the Red Cross volunteers from Hawaii and the mainland  will be leaving the island tomorrow.

None of the Red Cross officials were available to answer questions when KHJ News visited the center after closing time this afternoon.

But Communications Director Emily Cox told KHJ News via email from San Diego that as of Monday the Red Cross had opened 1200 cases for financial assistance.

She did not have the number of cases opened yesterday and today but if the long lines were an indication it would be a couple of hundred.

Cox said that all of the remaining off island Red Cross workers will be on tomorrow’s flight and everything will transition back to the local Red Cross Office for day to day normal operations.

KHJ News has received reports from Red Cross workers in the field that they are still coming across families with destroyed or badly damaged homes which had not been assessed and therefore have not received assistance from FEMA or the Red Cross.

The volunteers say they are also seeing tents being erected in front of homes which do not appar to have suffered any damages.