Hamburg Red Cross volunteer bearing brunt of Ike

Hamburg's Sandra Kehl is one of two Berks County volunteers now stationed in Fort Worth, Texas, as the American Red Cross responds to Hurricane Ike.

The massive Category 3 Hurricane slammed ashore very early Saturday morning, directly impacting Galveston Island, and the city of Galveston. The storm's remnants - still a Category 2, then 1 hurricane - then slammed into Houston, the fourth-largest city in the U.S. Some estimates have more than 6 million people without power this morning as the southeast Texas coast must wait to see how 100+ MPH winds and drenching rains damaged the area.

I've been glued to The Weather Channel since about Hurricane Andrew, and haven't seen Jim Cantore yet this morning, so it can't be good.

Kehl is joined by Reading's Janice DeCoster, another Red Cross volunteer, in Fort Worth. They had been stationed at Florida. They left that state on Tuesday, the Red Cross announced. They will be volunteering by aiding evacuees who may be out of their homes for some time.

The Item will be attempting to reach Kehl to have a story in next week's edition of the paper. It looks as though Kehl and all Red Cross volunteers will have a tough week or two ahead of them as they deal with the obvious devastation.