Hurricane Helene has devastated six states, leaving at least 130 people dead and hundreds missing. Lives ended, houses destroyed, towns flooded, the hurricane’s path of destruction has a steep cost. Nearly 1.6 million homes and businesses do not have power.
The American Red Cross of Utah is calling on Utahns, business leaders and foundations across the state to raise $1 million by the weekend to donate to relief efforts.
Communities will need to rebuild. Hospitals, schools and roads were damaged in the wake of the catastrophic disaster. A release from the Red Cross of Utah said volunteers from the state are on the ground in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
“When you see a home floating down the river, we know that this is not just the average disaster,” said Michael Smauldon, executive director of the American Red Cross Northern Utah & Southwest Wyoming Chapter.
The idea for the push for $1 million donated by the weekend came as Smauldon and other leaders were thinking of creative ways to invite Utahns to engage with philanthropy.
“The relief effort that’s happening there is going to be happening for quite a long time and we just really need the public support,” said Smauldon in a phone call with the Deseret News.
Quite a few more people have put in volunteer applications to go help in areas affected by the hurricane. Smauldon said on the donation side, it has been slower. This year alone, there have been $20 billion disasters and Hurricane Helene will exceed $1 billion in damages, he said.
“We would like to really move the needle,” said Smauldon.
Donations would go to provide food supplies, kits for cleaning up and comfort kits. As other supplies are needed, money would go toward those, too.
“First and foremost we’re providing a safe place to stay, food in their bellies and things that are going to help them with comfort,” said Smauldon. Some people in the affected areas need clothes and other comfort items.
These initial donations are part of the response phase. After the response phase, he said there is the recovery phase.
In the next weeks, teams will enter the recovery phase where they figure out how to get people financial assistance to move forward with their lives and recover from the devastation.
“We’re seeing our fellow Americans who are suffering and going through a horrific catastrophic disaster,” said Smauldon. This is a time to come together even though the political climate is “crazy.” He described it as some of the most catastrophic damage Americans have seen in the last five, ten years.
“This is an opportunity for everyone to come in and support,” he said, adding people will need help for a long time.
“Sadly, we just know that this is not an average storm and just to be able to help get the community moving forward and recover, it’s going to take quite a bit of dollars,” Smauldon said.
Utah volunteers on the ground are helping open shelters, he said. Authorities are still trying to get access to some areas, but volunteers are helping with shelter operations as survivors figure out the next steps to their recovery.
When the storm hit, one of the volunteers Kirsti Dunn from North Ogden was in a shelter in Madison, Florida.
“We had maybe 200 clients here, and what we were doing is, everyone was in their room and sound asleep and then the loudspeaker came over just because of the storm’s ferocity, that we needed to get everybody out into the hallways,” Dunn told KSL.
Some of roofing came off the school building they were in, said Dunn. She has now been helping care for families at that shelter.