Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

ALBANY --
Hurricane Sandy has certainly left her mark. According to Fox News, at least 39 Americans are dead, 8.2 million are left without power and 15,000 flights have been canceled as of Tuesday.

Even though the damage is hundreds of miles away, that hasn't stopped Southwest Georgia from getting involved.

"So far we've deployed 4 volunteers from South Georgia and we've sent our emergency response vehicle to Ashburn, Virginia so we've got those people in place before the storm," said The Flint River Chapter of the American Red Cross’s Executive Director, Lara Gill.

Gil’s team is now holding disaster assessments after the storm to determine their next move. They'll be making a list of more volunteers who can travel north to help supervise shelters -- and they're not the only local business who's lent a helping hand.

"We got word from our storm center that through the mutual assistance agreement that we knew there were going to be utilities in the Northeast that were impacted by the storm and we started putting together storm teams," said Georgia Power Albany Area Manager, Jay Smith.

Early Monday morning, Georgia Power sent 26 employees and 20 trucks from South Georgia to make their way up to the areas affected by Sandy. Tonight they'll stop in Aberdeen, Maryland and await their assignment in the morning – an important act the team is looking forward to.

"It's something we can do, it's something that we need to do because really it's setting the stage for whatever in the future may impact us," said Smith.

City of Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard says that's how it works. The north helped us during the floods of ‘94 and ‘98 --- now we're paying it back.

"They helped us. You always want to praise the bridge that carries you safely across. They helped us, now it is their turn we need to help them," said Hubbard.

Although our emergency teams are a long way from home, the road to getting the northeast restored is even longer. For those that don't have the training, time or resources to help directly can still lend a hand by donating money to the Red Cross by visiting www.redcross.org.