Americares Response to Hurricane Helene and Milton

Situation
Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm on September 26 on Florida’s Gulf Coast, with strong winds, heavy rains and a destructive storm surge that flooded communities. Over the next two days, the storm continued north, with heavy rains that triggered flash floods and caused rivers to overflow, resulting in catastrophic flooding from Georgia to western North Carolina and Tennessee, washing out roads and bridges and flooding entire communities. Before Helene made landfall, Americares emergency experts reached out to more than 360 partner clinics with offers of assistance.

The scope of Helene’s destruction became clear in the days that followed: With unpassable roads and widespread power outages, damaged communities were isolated. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, as many as 4.5 million customers were without power. A week after the storm, more than 750,000 people remained without power. Throughout the Southeast, more than 240 people were reported killed and millions were left without power or water for weeks.

Americares response teams were on the ground immediately, focused on the health needs in the hardest-hit communities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Americares coordinated deliveries of medicines and relief supplies, provided mental health support and helped restore health services with emergency funding and a mobile medical clinic that provided direct health services to survivors.

“Our emergency response was crafted to meet the varied needs of the communities throughout the region and across states,” says Americares U.S. Director of Emergency Response Mariel Fonteyn. “Our more than 30 responders on the ground were coordinating shipments, working alongside clinics to access funding and assessing the need for and providing health services, including mental health support.”

Our Response
In the first six months after the hurricane, Americares shipped more than 17 tons of medicine and relief supplies to partner organizations in affected areas, including 1,300 bottles of infant formula and 5,120 tetanus vaccines to protect survivors cleaning up the damage. The aid deliveries also include diabetes medicine, antibiotics and hygiene kits.

To help restore health services, Americares also provided 31 organizations across five states with more than $1 million in emergency funding.

Americares continues to support mental health in the region. Going forward, our focus will be building the capacity in the region, to meet the ongoing and growing mental health needs in the community. In the first six months after the storm, Americares mental health and psychosocial support staff partnered with health organizations and community groups in North Carolina and Georgia to provide Psychological First Aid, mental health trainings and individual and group support sessions to over 400 survivors, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and loss. Among these survivors are health workers and first responders who continue to support their communities while navigating their own recovery process. Americares disaster mental health specialists continue to offer psychoeducation sessions, providing effective coping strategies to manage stress and begin building psychological resilience.

In the first weeks after the hurricane, Americares installed four water purification systems for communities without running water in partnership with Planet Water Foundation. Combined, the AquaBlock water systems—three in Asheville and one in Swannanoa—had the capacity to produce up to 17,000 gallons of safe drinking water a day for thousands of hurricane survivors in Buncombe County. Americares also coordinated deliveries of bottled water donated by BlueTriton Brands to Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

To help meet immediate health needs of survivors, an Americares mobile medical clinic was deployed to western North Carolina in the days after the storm. At multiple locations, the clinic’s medical doctor and nurse diagnosed health conditions, prescribed medicine, provided tetanus vaccine and referred patients to local health facilities for treatment if needed.

Americares provided emergency funding to 31 partner organizations.

Links:

• https://www.americares.org/emergency-program/response-to-hurricane-helene/