The United Mine Workers of America union announced that it is donating $10,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

A $5,000 donation is going to the American Red Cross for disaster relief in the devastated communities along the Atlantic coast that took a direct hit from Sandy, and another $5,000 donation was made to the Mountaineer Food Bank to help that organization provide assistance to local food banks in particularly hard-hit areas of West Virginia.

Union President Cecil Roberts said, "The images of devastation all across the eastern United States are heartbreaking. Millions of people have lost everything they have. Millions more remain without power.

"Our brother and sister first-responders -- police, firefighters, EMTs and other state and municipal workers -- are giving of themselves night and day, often when their own homes are destroyed and their own families are displaced," Roberts said. "Even though our membership is far removed from the Atlantic coast, we wanted to do something to help."