Americares Response to Hurricane Helene and Milton

When Hurricane Helene devastated the southern Appalachian region of the United States in September 2024, Americares deployed a response team immediately to coordinate deliveries of medicine, supplies, water and mental health support.

Even before the storm, many local health organizations were benefiting from long-term partnerships with Americares. In South Carolina, Greenville Free Clinic’s Executive Director, Suzie Foley had Americares Climate Resilience for Frontline Clinics Toolkit in hand when her clinic lost power in the storm. “Boy, did we see that [the toolkit] had paid off when we were able to quickly and immediately put into place a plan that helped salvage a quarter-million-dollars-worth of insulin and vaccines,” Foley says. She moved the medicine to a nearby hospital powered by emergency generators.

One-hundred-fifty miles away, Kathy Christian, executive director at the Church Hill Medical Mission in Church Hill, Tennessee, was receiving texts about urgent needs in her community, when she opened an email from Americares with list of relief items on offer. “Our clinic has been partnering with Americares for years to provide free medication and supplies to our uninsured patients,” says Christian. “What we didn’t realize was the extent of what Americares could provide in a disaster. Americares support is not just life-changing. It is lifesaving!”

Americares, there for the long run

Americares support continues as communities recover and rebuild. Local health centers still need help, and lingering trauma affects many survivors. Americares recovery programs focus on building resilience among clinics serving low-income, uninsured and under-insured patients.

One key activity Americares is providing is mental health training and psychosocial support sessions for staff, with one-on-one follow-ups if needed. Thirteen clinics in three states are participating.

“We felt seen when Americares reached out to see how they could offer support,” says Mountain Community Health Partnership Co-Interim Behavioral Director Tiffany English, who welcomes the training and support. “I do see our connection and participation with Americares as a means of promoting resiliency among staff and in our communities.”

Hannah is now a peer educator at Mountain Community Health Partnerships. She and her family received behavioral health therapy services from the clinic, and Hannah can now help others in her situation.

“To me, the mountains are home,” Hannah says. “Even though I don’t have a home right now, it’s still in the beauty of the mountains.”

Links:

• Americares Hurricane Helene Response
• Americares Hurricane Helene Response Case Study

Situation
Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm on September 26 on Florida’s Gulf Coast, with strong winds, heavy rains and a destructive storm surge that flooded communities. Over the next two days, the storm continued north, with heavy rains that triggered flash floods and caused rivers to overflow, resulting in catastrophic flooding from Georgia to western North Carolina and Tennessee, washing out roads and bridges and flooding entire communities. Before Helene made landfall, Americares emergency experts reached out to more than 360 partner clinics with offers of assistance.

The scope of Helene’s destruction became clear in the days that followed: With unpassable roads and widespread power outages, damaged communities were isolated. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, as many as 4.5 million customers were without power. A week after the storm, more than 750,000 people remained without power. Throughout the Southeast, more than 240 people were reported killed and millions were left without power or water for weeks.

Americares response teams were on the ground immediately, focused on the health needs in the hardest-hit communities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Americares coordinated deliveries of medicines and relief supplies, provided mental health support and helped restore health services with emergency funding and a mobile medical clinic that provided direct health services to survivors.

“Our emergency response was crafted to meet the varied needs of the communities throughout the region and across states,” says Americares U.S. Director of Emergency Response Mariel Fonteyn. “Our more than 30 responders on the ground were coordinating shipments, working alongside clinics to access funding and assessing the need for and providing health services, including mental health support.”

Our Response
In the first six months after the hurricane, Americares shipped more than 17 tons of medicine and relief supplies to partner organizations in affected areas, including 1,300 bottles of infant formula and 5,120 tetanus vaccines to protect survivors cleaning up the damage. The aid deliveries also include diabetes medicine, antibiotics and hygiene kits.

To help restore health services, Americares also provided 31 organizations across five states with more than $1 million in emergency funding.

Americares continues to support mental health in the region. Going forward, our focus will be building the capacity in the region, to meet the ongoing and growing mental health needs in the community. In the first six months after the storm, Americares mental health and psychosocial support staff partnered with health organizations and community groups in North Carolina and Georgia to provide Psychological First Aid, mental health trainings and individual and group support sessions to over 400 survivors, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and loss. Among these survivors are health workers and first responders who continue to support their communities while navigating their own recovery process. Americares disaster mental health specialists continue to offer psychoeducation sessions, providing effective coping strategies to manage stress and begin building psychological resilience.

In the first weeks after the hurricane, Americares installed four water purification systems for communities without running water in partnership with Planet Water Foundation. Combined, the AquaBlock water systems—three in Asheville and one in Swannanoa—had the capacity to produce up to 17,000 gallons of safe drinking water a day for thousands of hurricane survivors in Buncombe County. Americares also coordinated deliveries of bottled water donated by BlueTriton Brands to Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

To help meet immediate health needs of survivors, an Americares mobile medical clinic was deployed to western North Carolina in the days after the storm. At multiple locations, the clinic’s medical doctor and nurse diagnosed health conditions, prescribed medicine, provided tetanus vaccine and referred patients to local health facilities for treatment if needed.

Americares provided emergency funding to 31 partner organizations.

Links:

• https://www.americares.org/emergency-program/response-to-hurricane-helene/