Hurricane Helene has become the second deadliest U.S. hurricane since 2000 as the death toll has surpassed 165 people, with deaths in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Among a groundswell of response and recovery efforts from across the country, Samaritan’s Purse is one organization giving everything they have.
The Christian ministry found itself in a unique position to respond as Hurricane Helene rolled across the Southeast. Not only because the organization already had teams dispatched in Florida, Texas, and other states aiding in recovery from Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Francine, but because of its headquarters in Boone, North Carolina – one of the areas most impacted.
“They’ve never seen a tidal surge like this in 50 years. Six to seven feet of water inundated everything that was close to a body of water,” Todd Taylor, manager of Samaritan’s Purse U.S. Disaster Relief, said. “We’ve got houses with anywhere from just a few inches to seven feet of water across an entire metro area. You’re talking more than 40,000 homes effected.”
Samaritan’s Purse is no stranger to responding during widespread natural disasters, Todd went on to say. The ministry helped recovery efforts in the year’s following one of the deadliest disasters in American history, Hurricane Katrina, but the impacts of three different hurricanes in quick succession presents a new challenge.
Taylor explained that Samaritan’s Purse was prepared for a widespread effort and shifted resources to ensure their response wasn’t hindered by Helene’s impact on their headquarters in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition to the existing aid for victims of Beryl and Francine, his team has mobilized to six different locations after the most recent tempest dumped a staggering 42 trillion gallons of rainfall.
“Samaritan’s Purse has engaged all of our ministry. We’re just trying to help out any way we can,” Taylor said. “We don’t know exactly what the recovery process will be like in the long term. Samaritan’s purse is committed to the long haul of any response.”
While emergency officials recommend Mississippians wanting to help in the recovery should donate money to professional organizations, there are a number of ways to help the Samaritan’s Purse efforts.
Meteorologists say that conditions in the Gulf of Mexico have a high risk of developing another major storm in the next two weeks.
