A group of six Red Cross volunteers is headed to the Texas area, and more are on standby.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As a deadly winter storm moves across the South and Northeast, crews in several states are either working around the clock or standing by to respond as conditions worsen.

With snow piling up across a massive stretch of the country, help is now coming from Northern California. Six Red Cross volunteers from Northern California are heading to Texas on Sunday, with several more on standby.

“The Gold Country Region of the Red Cross has sent six volunteers and we have four or five others that are on standby should they be needed,” said Steve Walsh of the Red Cross Gold Country region.

The volunteers are deploying to Texas, where ice and snow caused major problems on roadways, including a freeway pileup in Dallas. 

Outside Austin, at least one person was found dead Sunday, officials said, presumably from hypothermia. In Louisiana, officials said at least two other people also died from hypothermia.

Walsh said the Northern California volunteers are trained to support disaster response efforts where they’re needed most.

“Our volunteers are all trained in whatever their special field is of service delivery for the Red Cross,” Walsh said. “In this case, our volunteers are doing what we call ‘mass care,’ which is essentially meeting the immediate needs of anybody who’s in our shelters, and the other is logistics, which is how to get supplies from point A to point B.”

As the storm strains resources nationwide, Red Cross officials said there is one urgent need that goes beyond shelter and supplies: blood donations.

“We happen to be in a situation right now, in a critical blood shortage,” Walsh said. “Because of the weather and other factors, our blood supply is down nationwide 35% from last month, so we are really, really encouraging people — if you’ve donated before, to do it again, and if you never have, sign up at redcrossblood.org  to donate.”

The Red Cross, a nonprofit organization, said it continues to rely on donations and volunteers as the storm response unfolds, encouraging people to give blood, donate money or offer their time.

“Every volunteer expects to be deployed for two weeks,” Walsh said. “If they’re not needed during that time, they might be reassigned to a different job or they might be told they can go back home, but the expectation is that a deployment is two weeks long.”

Watch more from ABC10: California stays dry as winds briefly scour valley fog, rain possible next week

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