Hurricane Helene barreled through the East Coast, devastating areas in its path. Despite being over 2000 miles away, Montana stepped up to help by deploying Red Cross Volunteers to provide disaster relief on the ground in affected states.
Boulder resident Heather Sappington left for North Carolina a few weeks ago, lending a helping hand in the time of crisis.
She said, “They didn't have enough hands. It was awful. If nobody does it then nobody does it, and I don't like feeling helpless. So, there's always something you can do.”
Heather is no stranger to emergency response efforts being a volunteer fire fighter. However, this deployment marks one of her longest trips for volunteering.
She described not seeing much damage at first when landing in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I thought that maybe it’s not going to be that bad. Then we drove up to Asheville, North Carolina, me and one of the other Red Cross members, and it was completely different. Like the town was gone. There’s cars flipped upside down and trees everywhere, debris everywhere. You couldn't tell that there was a town.”
As a shelter supervisor, volunteers like Heather oversaw those who have lost their homes, taking people in and giving them cots, blankets, and food.
With winds up to 140 mph, torrential rain and flooding, and power surges, the devastation was intense.
Matt Ochsner, the Montana Red Cross regional communications director said that hurricane relief will be a long-term response.
“We’ve got five or six volunteers, Red Cross volunteers from Montana out the door right now, and we expect more to go out the door in the weeks and months to come.”
Montana’s involvement in Hurricane Helene’s relief efforts goes beyond volunteers. A call for donations are crucial during this time.
“You can imagine how many blood drives have been cancelled in the Southeast,” Matt explained. “Every two seconds, somebody in this country needs that blood. So we're asking people in the unaffected areas like Montana to raise your hand, come out and donate lifesaving blood.”
