'We're prepping:' Wisconsin companies help those in Florence's path

Joshua Rogue

MILWAUKEE -- Disaster relief was on the way to the East Coast from Wisconsin Thursday, Sept. 13, as Hurricane Florence made landfall. Red Cross volunteers from the Badger State were already on the ground -- and those with other Wisconsin companies were preparing to help as well.

Joshua Rogue lives in North Carolina; his home in the evacuation zone.

"Right now, we're just starting to get a little bit of the higher gusts of wind. When they did the mandatory evacuation, every store cleared out -- all the water, bread, all the non-perishables," said Rogue.

Rogue, his family and a group of neighbors chose to stay and ride out the storm.

"We've been here for 25 years, and we've lived through the rest of them," said Rogue.

While Hurricane Florence was a Category 2 as of Thursday afternoon, forecasters were predicting historic flooding.

"We've heard the reports that Florence is going to be big and it has potentially devastating consequences," said Tami Garrison, senior community affairs manager with MillerCoors in Milwaukee.

Tami Garrison

MillerCoors donated about 200,000 cans of water to the Carolinas. On Thursday, the cans were on standby in Virginia.

"We're prepping in advance and making sure that we have fresh water out there. We've had a long-standing partnership with the Red Cross. When it comes to relief, we absolutely trust them as our partner on the ground," said Garrison.

More than 30 Red Cross volunteers from Wisconsin left Tuesday for the East Coast. More were on standby.

In anticipation of power outages, FOX6 News learned Generac Power Systems was preparing to deploy a volunteer storm response team to the Carolinas Friday morning from Waukesha.