Millions of hurricane victims from Helene and Milton are receiving much-needed relief such as food, water and medical supplies from the Christian humanitarian organization, Samaritan's Purse.
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00:00During this deadly hurricane season, the team at Samaritan's Purse has been responding again and again to the destruction left behind
00:06with disaster relief and support. Luther Harrison is vice president of North American Ministries with Samaritan's Purse.
00:14Luther, thank you so much for joining us here this morning.
00:17Well, thank you for having us on your program.
00:20Well, it gets right started. Thank you again, Luther.
00:23Can you tell us more about your team's most recent efforts in Florida following Hurricane Milton?
00:31Well, after Helene hit, we set up in Tampa St. Pete and we also set up in Perry County.
00:37But after Milton went through, Charlotte County had over 4,000 homes flooded. So we returned to the first two places
00:45where we were set up for Helene. And now with Milton, we have a lot of flooding, a lot of damage.
00:51So we're there with the Floridians and only to come alongside of them and show them that God loves them.
00:57And he's sending an army of volunteers out to help them muck out their homes, tarp the roofs, cut the trees,
01:03whatever they can do to support and minister to these families, not only in Florida,
01:07but even here in North Carolina where our office is. We got hit very hard up here because of Helene.
01:13Well, yes, speaking of that, after Hurricane Helene, many isolated mountain communities are still in need of supplies.
01:19Tell us about your airlift program.
01:22Well, over 300 missions with helicopters, three Chinooks, three Blackhawks, and
01:27even NASCAR race teams are sending their helicopters. Private owners are sending their
01:32helicopters to get to the families that are cut off. You see the weather in our area.
01:37We had snow actually in Watauga County last night up on Beach Mountain, which is about 5,000 feet in elevation.
01:43But families are still without power. They're without heat.
01:46So these helicopters are flying generators, heat, food parcels, water,
01:51everything that they can to try to help these families sustain, even blankets right now that we're distributing.
01:57Yeah, and you mentioned some of those impacts from the local weather that's been happening here as of late and
02:05Samaritan's Purse also provides medical assistance with temporary hospitals. Along with that need,
02:12are there any other needs that you're seeing and which locations are still getting some of that medical help?
02:18Well, they recently they're providing tetanus for some of the families, so get immunizations for that. We provided oxygen through two
02:27hospitals that
02:28families, their portable oxygen machines at home with no power, they could not get that refilled.
02:33So we also set up a Tier 1 hospital in Avery County, North Carolina to help with the overflow from the hospital there.
02:40And how can our viewers support your work on the ground?
02:44The biggest thing is pray for these families.
02:47People have never lived in the floodplain in their entire life, have had everything washed away, mudslides. Pray for them as
02:54they try to recover and we try to come alongside of them. Samaritan's Purse,
02:58we will not leave them. We will help families that are falling through the cracks get back into their homes,
03:02and this will be a long, long recovery.
03:06But just be in prayer for us and if people want to get involved and volunteer, go to SamaritansPurse.org
03:11to see how you can get involved.
03:14We will be sending lots of love and of course our thoughts and prayers are with you all. Luther Harrison,
03:20Vice President of North American Ministries with Samaritan's Purse. Thank you so much for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.