Looking back at a summer filled with tornadoes, a house explosion and multiple fires, it was a busy season for the American Red Cross in the Twin Tiers. Our Katie Husband tells us how the organization is holding up financially and what they expect to encounter in the coming months.

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CORNING, N.Y. -- One disaster after another, residents in the Southern Tier couldn't catch a break. It was a busier than normal summer recorded by the Greater Steuben Chapter of the American Red Cross.

"This traditionally is kind of a down time for us. Most folks are vacationing, the temperatures are warm, so we don't see historically as many incidents as we saw over this past summer," said Brian McConnell, Greater Steuben Chapter American Red Cross Executive Director.

After responding to every incident over the summer including the house explosion in Corning the American Red Cross was not financially exhausted. McConnell says thanks to their donors, they're able to head into the heating season ready to respond.

"We've been very fortunate to have the response from individual donors from our corporate donors and from our local United Way to help offset any expenses that we had during those special responses," said McConnell.

Now, the organization is turning its attention to certain household habits that could cause problems to ignite.

"Traditionally, what we see is folks turning on furnaces for the first time that they may not have had inspected. We may see some folks use alternative heating methods, whatever that may be, so they don't have to have the large expense of running their furnace and heating the whole house," said McConnell.

McConnell speculates what a busy winter could look like.

"But that would probably put us around 100 to 125 responses total within the three county area and on an average, we probably see expenses totaling $1,000 per case," said McConnell.

If the winter season is anything like the summer, the Red Cross could see funds take a dive.