Governor Cox called on the state legislature to appropriate $250,000 (about $11 million in today's dollars) for emergency aid and declared a 10-day bank holiday. When newly elected President Woodrow Wilson sent telegrams to the governors of Ohio and Indiana asking how the federal government might help, Cox replied with a request for tents, rations, supplies, and physicians. Governor Cox sent a telegram to the American Red Cross headquarters in Washington D.C. requesting their assistance in Dayton and surrounding communities. Its agents and nurses focused their efforts in 112 of Ohio's hardest-hit communities, which included Dayton and others located primarily along Ohio's major rivers.