TULSA -- Oklahoma is sending supply trucks along with emergency workers to Florida to help with the disaster response after Hurricane Irma.
Ricky Hanks, the president of T-Town Roofing, decided Friday to collect supplies and non-perishable food items to send to Florida, a place that he calls his second home.
"You always hear people say, 'Well, I wish I could do something,'" Hanks said. "It's amazing to just be able to actually do something to stop, drop and set up shop and help the people in need. It's a good feeling. It's a great feeling."
Hanks partnered with a professional group he's involved with, the Young Businessmen of Tulsa, to get even more donations for the hurricane victims.
"We have given over $140,000 to different projects (in Tulsa), but this was an opportunity where we could actually take some of our resources and give it to where it was needed most," Matthew Moore, president of the YBT, said. "Even though we're focused on Tulsa, this was a time for us to reach out to our fellow Americans."
In addition to the help they're providing, crews from local utility companies are headed to Florida to restore power to some of the millions who lost it during the storm. More than 300 employees from the Public Service Company of Oklahoma should arrive in the Tampa area Tuesday. They're following 30 workers from the Grand River Dam Authority who left Saturday morning to do the same thing.
The state also sent down 12 emergency workers this weekend to assist with disaster response in Florida, including the Craig County emergency management director.
"If we can help, we want to help because we live in Oklahoma," Morris Bluejacket said by phone Monday. "We know there's a strong possibility we may have a major disaster. That's what it's all about in emergency management is helping each other."
Once the supply truck leaves Tuesday from the T-Town Roofing office in midtown, additional donations can be made through the Young Businessmen of Tulsa here.
