Stabilizing Communities after Hurricane Florence

Hello Donors!

Since Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina in September, our teams have been hard at work assisting families as they deal with extensive storm damage. Volunteers and staff arrived in the New Bern area in early September, and have been there ever since! Early in this process, All Hands and Hearts was asked to run a Volunteer Reception Center in New Bern where spontaneous volunteers could join our teams. Closed in early October, the efforts at this VRC facilitated 1,451 volunteer hours.

Recovery efforts are still in full swing providing vital support to families that experienced high levels of water damage in their homes. Since program start, our teams have completed 70 muck and guts as well as 17 mold sanitizations. With the help of 268 volunteers and over 15,848 hours of volunteer work over the past three months, more than 337 people are able to take the next steps in this process, approaching full recovery from Hurricane Florence.

After more than three months of response work, we are excited to report that recovery efforts are set to begin very soon! This means that our teams are now in a position to help make repairs to homes for families that critically need assistance.

As we begin to wind down response work, it’s important to remain mindful of the fact our work is not done yet. Response is only a small part of a long process for people putting the pieces of their lives back together after a damaging storm like Hurricane Florence. Supporting this ongoing work will directly help children and their families get back into safe, warm homes as we enter the New Year and formally begin this phase of work the first week of January. Please consider continuing to partner with us as we begin this imperative step towards full recovery in North Carolina!