Red Cross volunteers from Kilgore and Big Sandy flew north Wednesday to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Meanwhile, local residents can donate funds to the relief effort, officials with Red Cross and the Salvation Army said Thursday.

The agencies accept donations through their websites, www.redcross.org and www.salvationarmyusa.org. People also can donate in person at the agencies’ local offices, which are 519 Cotton St. for the Salvation Army and 1604 Texas 31 (at Loop 281) for the Red Cross. Checks are requested.

“We have gotten more volunteers off in the last three or four days than we have in some time,” said Tammy Prater, executive director of the East Texas Pineywoods Chapter of the Red Cross.

Three volunteers who flew Wednesday from Shreveport were joined by another volunteer from Texarkana. Those four followed four from Smith County who already made the journey north and east, she said.

The Red Cross van stationed at the Longview office has not been dispatched.

“It’s on standby,” Prater said. “It could go. It depends on how much neighborhood feeding (occurs) — right now, it’s people getting out of their homes and going to shelters.”

Ken Dixon of Kilgore is assigned to feeding operations in shelters, or in neighborhood stations if those are set up.

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