BATON ROUGE — Here in Louisiana, crews who helped clean up after Hurricane Francine three weeks ago are now offering aid to those in the path of Helene.Some emergency crews have already headed out and others are standing by to bring assistance to states like Florida and Georgia, which are in the path of Hurricane Helene.In Denham Springs, DEMCO has sent 21 crews with lots of equipment to provide aid for the Talquin Electric Cooperative in Florida. Both companies are part of a nationwide partnership of 900 electric cooperatives."They did just answer for us a couple of weeks ago with Hurricane Francine and the same crew that came here from Talquin, now we're going there," public relations manager Anne Hawes said.WBRZ asked the Baton Rouge Fire Department Thursday about how they're helping. They said they have a search and rescue crew on standby and will send it if more assistance is requested."We have a USAR team on standby. It's comprised of members of the Baton Rouge Fire Department, Central Fire Department, Zachary Fire Department, Eastside. So multiple departments around the area," BRFD public information officer Justin Hill said.With any natural disaster, there is always an increased need for blood donations. Donating just one pint of blood can save three lives.Local blood donation sites say this is an important time to donate to ensure the hard-hit areas have enough and make sure there is enough back home too due to a national blood shortage."We are sometimes supplemented by a blood donor center out of Florida, so at this time, since they're unable to ship blood out, it's going to be an ideal time for our community to step up and donate the blood needed," Our Lady of the Lake Hospital's Jay Thomas said.Permalink| Comments