DENVER (KDVR) — As Hurricane Idalia closes in on the state of Florida, thousands of people are fleeing coastal areas. But one Denver man is doing the opposite.

He arrived in Tallahassee on Tuesday in preparation for a potential disaster.

“Tomorrow morning, I’m just hoping wherever I’m staying at is still going to be there,” said Jamaal Wilson.

Wilson is a Red Cross volunteer who specializes in community engagement and partnership. He’s been deployed to countless disasters but said this is the first time he’s been sent to one before a storm even hits.

“It’s kind of scary because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Wilson said. “Everything before was after landfall, so we saw the destruction, we knew what we were getting into. This one is, ‘What’s going to happen?’”

Wilson said volunteers will be riding out the storm from a safe location before quickly moving into impacted areas to provide assistance.

“It’s a joyous thing to give back,” Wilson said. “I have a passion for that, and I want to see communities come back better than they were before the storm.”

If you’d like to help, you can donate on the American Red Cross website.