A Week In, Hurricane Helene’s Impacts Still Reverberate Across Multiple States

Relief and recovery efforts continue across the southeastern U.S. and southern Appalachia following Hurricane Helene. The storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane over Florida's Big Bend region late on September 26, brought devastating winds of up to 140 mph, life-threatening storm surge that reached 16 feet, and torrential rains, triggering widespread flooding and debris flows and leaving an 800-mile path of destruction.

Preliminary reports indicate the storm's passage has resulted in at least 170 deaths, while hundreds more remain missing. The storm also caused severe damage to critical infrastructure, including houses, roadways, and water systems; disrupted communications and other essential services; and prompted U.S. health officials to declare Public Health Emergencies for Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

In addition, as of October 2, more than 1.2 million customers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia remained without power, causing disruptions to critical health services, including due to the loss of temperature-sensitive medications and vaccines, and putting those reliant on electrically powered medical devices and medicines requiring refrigeration at heightened risk.

In response, Direct Relief has made available $74 million in medicines and medical supplies and $250,000 in financial assistance to community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other healthcare partners in affected areas.

Direct Relief has staff on the ground in affected states, including Florida and Georgia, and is coordinating closely with state and national associations as well as healthcare providers to assess damages, identify priority needs, and respond to requests for emergency medical aid.

DIRECT RELIEF'S RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HELENE

As of September 30, Direct Relief had dispatched 14 shipments of specifically requested emergency medical aid, including antibiotics, emergency medical backpacks, DTaP vaccines, hygiene kits, oral rehydration salts, over-the-counter products, personal protective equipment, water purification tablets, and medications to manage chronic diseases, for healthcare providers responding to the needs of hard-hit communities in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The shipments include 20 emergency medical backpacks and 150 household hygiene kits for Appalachian Mountain Health, which serves communities in Ashville, NC, which suffered catastrophic flooding and damages due to Hurricane Helene, and the nearby towns of Murphy and Robbinsville.

Additionally, from September 24 to October 1, Direct Relief delivered 42 shipments of essential medicines and supplies to healthcare providers in affected states as part of its Safety Net Support Program; the program seeks to ensure community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other local healthcare providers across the U.S. have access to ongoing donations of medicines and medical supplies for their low-income and uninsured patients and helps build health facility resilience to respond to and quickly recover from shocks, including those caused by extreme weather and climate events, emergencies, and seasonal demand surges.

Medications shipped to the storm-affected areas regularly include insulin, mental health medications, and blood thinners. People dependent on these medications could face profound consequences without them. People without needed insulin, for example, may have prolonged elevations in blood sugar which can lead to life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis. Additionally, people who have been stable on antidepressants may face increased risk of mental health crisis, while people without access to needed blood thinners are at increased risk of a stroke. With baseline diabetes, asthma, and hypertension rates exceeding national averages in many of the affected areas, there is a heightened risk for unmanaged chronic diseases to cause sudden health crises.

In addition to the above response efforts, Direct Relief emergency response personnel are conducting site visits with several healthcare partners in Florida. During the week of September 30, Direct Relief staff visited Evara Health, a community health center with 17 locations throughout Florida's Tampa Bay area, and the University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic. Following Hurricane Ian's impact on Florida in September 2022, Direct Relief, in partnership with the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, supported the procurement of a retrofitted mobile medical unit for Evara Health.

The health center recently deployed the mobile medical unit to provide critical health services for communities in Pinellas County, which faced disruptions of power and water services, extensive flooding, and significant property damages following Hurricane Helene. Similarly, the University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic is using its Direct Relief-funded mobile medical unit to offer daily clinics in Gainesville and a weekly rotating clinic in rural communities. Another Direct Relief-supported organization, Cherokee Health Systems, reports deploying their mobile clinic to assess needs and support community response efforts in East Tennessee's Cocke, Hamblen, and Green counties.

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE CAPACITY

As part of its annual Hurricane Preparedness Program, Direct Relief stages Hurricane Preparedness Packs in hurricane-prone states and territories along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. These packs, containing more than 200 items, are critical to ensuring the continuity of care for as many as 100 patients for 72 hours in the wake of an emergency. As of the June 1 start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Direct Relief had prepositioned 30 packs with safety net providers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

In addition, through its ongoing support, Direct Relief maintains an extensive network of 276 health partners in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. During the previous five years, Direct Relief has mobilized more than 28,000 shipments comprising more than $561 million in essential medicines, medical supplies, and medical equipment for these health partners. During emergencies, Direct Relief can quickly tap into this network to identify priority needs and mobilize medical resources for healthcare providers that are already vetted by Direct Relief and well-established and trusted among impacted communities.

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