The Salvation Army is providing tens of thousands of meals to help survivors of Hurricane Helene make it through the aftermath.
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00:00Helene is another disaster where the Salvation Army is there to help. They have helped mobilize
00:05operation across five states. And Lori Freed is long-term disaster recovery specialist for the
00:11Salvation Army. Lori, thank you for making time for us here. You're serving such an important
00:16role right now for many families. Well, thank you for having us. We're just honored to have
00:22the opportunity to tell our family story. Lori, what is the situation on the ground
00:28now almost a week after Helene arrived? What kinds of help is still most urgently needed?
00:34Absolutely. Well, I am the incident commander here for the North and South Carolinas
00:38in Hendersonville. And as you can expect, it's devastation across within North and South Carolina.
00:45We have more than 900,000 still without power. And there is just devastation everywhere. The roads,
00:52we've got debris still all over the roads. Families' transportation has been impacted.
00:57Their homes have been impacted. And they're just shook up at this point. So the Salvation
01:02Army is just honored to be able to come alongside those individuals, give them a cold drink, maybe
01:08a warm meal, and show them some hope that there are people out there that love them and support
01:14them and are able to be there to help. So Lori, unfortunately, many people don't
01:20have flood insurance. How is the Salvation Army helping families whose homes were destroyed
01:25with FEMA and other resources? Absolutely. So Salvation Army is really proud too. We've
01:30done over 82,000 meals, and we have more than 65 of our feeding trucks out across those areas
01:37serving people. So our first focus right now is making sure people have a place to stay
01:42and a meal to eat. And so by working with our partners, we're making sure everybody is taken
01:47care of, that they are able to meet those needs. Start working with our partners and educating
01:52individuals about those resources to file for FEMA, to work with their insurance companies
01:58so that they can get all of the access to the resources. But Salvation Army has been in these
02:02communities. We're here before the disasters. We're one of the largest social service agencies
02:07in the world. And so we're going to be here alongside those communities to help them figure
02:12out what those next steps are. And we just hope that we will have the support of those. The best
02:17way to help those individuals is really to make a financial gift. They can go to helpsalvationarmy.org
02:22or 1-800-SALARMY, and we will be able to take those resources and put them to the most use for
02:28those families. Well, this is a long-term recovery, and I know that that's part of what you do.
02:34Lori Freed, long-term disaster recovery specialist with the Salvation Army, realizes it's a marathon,
02:39not a sprint. So thank you for what you're doing and what you'll continue to do in the months to
02:42come. Thank you so much. All right, Lori.