How the private sector has led the ‘front-line’ response to Helene’s clean-up

Roads have been destroyed and railroad tracks washed away, while power lines remain strewn across roads, and many are still without running water and internet service in western North Carolina towns such as Marshall, Spruce Pine, and Burnsville. But because of swift responses from private organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, Aerial Recovery, Happy Helicopters, and Baptists on Mission, vulnerable hurricane survivors in remote areas have been rescued who would otherwise have almost certainly perished. Hundreds of thousands have been fed, homes restored, and hope fueled by mighty armies of volunteers.

Here’s a deeper dive into four nonprofit organizations and private businesses that provided invaluable aid to people in the aftermath of one the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit the U.S.

Samaritan’s Purse

Arguably one of the most important first responders in the wake of Helene, Samaritan’s Purse told the Washington Examiner in an email that since Sept. 30, it ​​has mobilized more than 18,000 volunteers to help more than 1,200 families by removing mud from homes, clearing downed trees, clearing debris, and tarping damaged roofs. More than 7,000 families have requested assistance from the faith-based organization, which has a total of seven response sites dedicated to Helene’s response efforts.

The ministry is delivering relief supplies to more than 160 hard-hit communities, while its Disaster Assistance Response Team members have conducted the largest civilian airlift operation in U.S. history. More than 300 emergency airlift operations have been completed using helicopters from private businesses, individuals, and nonprofit organizations, as well as two Chinook helicopters from the Army National Guard. 

Throughout WNC, the ministry’s Information Technology staff have installed 83 Starlinks in remote locations to restore internet service. As many across the area still don’t have running water, Samaritan’s Purse engineers have also installed three community water filtration systems that have produced over 270,000 liters of clean water. And over 1,000 oxygen tanks have been refilled from the ministry’s medical support across four North Carolina counties.

A spokeswoman for Samaritan’s Purse said that “as an international Christian relief organization, we have always prioritized partnerships with local churches, recognizing their unique role in providing hope and practical aid in times of crisis.” 

One family in Burnsville was one of the many whose homes were wrecked with mud. It was Samaritan’s Purse volunteers who first arrived to clean it out on Oct. 12. They were among the roughly 500 volunteers with the ministry who showed up to help out the small rural town that Saturday.

 “We are committed to working through the local church, sharing the love of Jesus Christ in word and deed,” Samaritan’s Purse told the Washington Examiner.

Aerial Recovery Group

Aerial Recovery is a nonprofit civilian group composed of veterans and other volunteers. In the aftermath of Helene, it delivered thousands of pounds of life-saving supplies to residents in remote areas. Often, their support has rescued vulnerable survivors who would have died without the group’s swift response.  

Saving an 11-day-old premature baby in a “life or death” situation, delivering a 93-year-old woman with feeding tubes and buying her a generator so she and her 70-year-old daughter could keep their food cold, rescuing an elderly couple stranded from a landslide, and aiding a woman “with just a day’s worth of life support left” are a handful of instances where Arial Recovery has provided help to people with time running out. 

“The government maybe is doing the best they can do on their end, and you’ve got areas that they’re taking care of, and I think that’s why we’re here,” one volunteer said. “I would say that for every three National Guard helicopters I see, I probably see 40 civilian helicopters.”

“We’re taking care of the areas that are not getting help. What we’re doing here is grassroots,” she added.

And their grassroots efforts have helped thousands. A series of Instagram posts highlighted by the group illustrate the vast swath of people, particularly in WNC, Aerial Recovery has helped. 

“Within just the first hour and a half [after Helene hit] we were inundated with over 200 desperate calls,” one post reads. A post written days later records the group “getting between 150 to 200 requests per day.” Another post dated Oct. 7 states the Aerial Recovery team is “responding to the over 1,100 requests for crisis cleanup.” 

“We’re going to pick up on 3,000 pounds of medical supplies right now,” a volunteer stated in one video before adding that the group had flown “10,000 plus pounds” of supplies out to hard-hit communities the previous day.

Happy Helicopters

The head of Happy Helicopters tour company, based in Greenville, South Carolina, sparked a brand new grassroots movement when he started a GoFundMe to fly supplies to WNC, using his small business as a launching pad for massive disaster relief efforts. 

“We are getting hundreds of emails and calls requesting help. These requests are coming from people with no utilities who have run out of food and water,” Burch’s WNC GoFundMe account reads. “Some are actually drinking water from muddy creeks. There are countless elderly residents and families with infants stranded in remote locations.”

Isaiah Burch’s WNC fundraising account had brought in over $265,000 dollars as of Oct. 17. Alongside Greenville-based realtor Tracy Roberts, they’ve turned a one-man effort into a small army of personal planes and helicopters flown by volunteer pilots who just want to do “anything to help” per comments to the Post and Courier. With thousands of people in the Greenville community pitching in with massive donation drives, the helicopters have carried vital supplies such as baby formula and warm clothing to WNC.

Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 7, Happy Helicopter’s efforts transported close to 2 million pounds of relief to WNC.

“The mission of this was to fill a void before major organizations could get their relief efforts in place,” the small business said in a Facebook post on Oct. 9.

And it came through. “We were the first people that brought baby items,” one Happy Helicopter social media post said in a description of the volunteer efforts to help a small, remote North Carolina town. 

Baptists on Mission

Baptists on Mission is another piece of the fabric holding devastated communities together in Helene’s deadly wake.

Using three mass feeding sites stationed across four North Carolina counties, the faith-based organization has served an estimated 300,000 meals to people since Helene hit, supplying 42,000 meals in one day at the height of its relief efforts. It shut down one of the feeding sites earlier this week. 

With 16 recovery sites serving as the ministry’s base, Baptists on Mission continues to send out roughly 1,200 volunteers a day across WNC to help people clean out their homes, cut trees off their homes, and put tarps on roofs on damaged homes to protect from further damage.  

Baptists on Mission Disaster Relief Coordinator Tom Beam said the ministry has worked on and finished approximately 400 homes devastated by the hurricane so families could move back in. He estimated that the ministry has between 1,600 and 1,800 homes still on its list to complete. 

Baptists on Mission has seen an “overwhelming” response from ordinary people seeking to lend their efforts to the group. Roughly 7,000 people have signed up to volunteer, which is more than the organization can even facilitate.

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“We’re trying to put as many to work as we can, but it’s just not possible to house that many people at one time,” Beam explained. He noted that volunteers are sleeping on “Sunday school classroom floors,” air mattresses, and cots.

“Our calling is to minister to people,” Beam told the Washington Examiner. He said it’s why Baptists on Mission is on the “front-lines” of disaster relief efforts.