A woman from Greenwich is leaving today for the Virgin Islands to join the relief effort to help the thousands of people devastated by Hurricane Irma.

Traci Gwozdz recently became a volunteer for the American Red Cross and is being deployed to St. Croix.

It’s not the first natural disaster Gwozdz has responded to, as she helped out in south Florida 25 years ago following Hurricane Andrew.

According to Gwozdz, there has been a number of people in her Riverside community donating to the Red Cross to help the victims of Irma.

Gwozdz says she wanted to learn more about where the money goes, so she called a friend who's been on the board the past few years.

She was told they are in desperate need of volunteers.

Gwozdz filled out an application, received a phone call almost immediately, and then underwent training.

St. Croix is currently a staging area for the Red Cross since it has one of the few airports open in the area.

Gwozdz says she may be sent to another affected island from there, but won't know until she arrives.

“I'm going in with a very open mind and just a lot of flexibility as far as where I'm going to go, what's going to be expected of me,” says Gwozdz. “I've got a lot things I can read and prepare myself and when I think about the people that are going to be there helping, it's an incredible group of people.”

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