BOONE, N.C. — Samaritan’s Purse is seeking solutions for people who are cut off from vital resources in western North Carolina in Helene's wake.
The organization is partnering with the U.S. National Guard and other local pilots to fly essential items like generators and heaters to mountain communities that were slammed by the storm.
In the first two weeks after the storm, Samaritan's Purse said about 200 flights took off from the Boone airport to impacted areas. At the airport, volunteers loaded items into several helicopters that made trips to nearby areas that don't have access to power or roads. Flooding in many of the affected areas destroyed roads, bridges, and power lines.
In one example, the Samaritan's Purse Disaster Response Team went to the Bat Cave community near Chimney Rock and crossed a river using a small metal bridge and climbed a ladder to deliver a Starlink unit to the Bat Cave Fire Department.
CEO Franklin Graham told WCNC Charlotte a lot of the supplies are going to fire departments and churches in hard-hit areas so community members can identify where they should be distributed.
"The people that we're helping, some of them are very desperate, and right now there's no assurance that some of these communities are gonna get power back in the next three or four months. So, they may go through Christmas without power," Graham said.
When asked how people can help Samaritan's Purse, Graham said to pray. He added that they need people who can volunteer during the week and not just the weekends.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.