‘We look after our neighbors’: how mutual-aid groups are filling the gaps after Hurricane Helene
The federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient – response
Adria R Walker
Sun 6 Oct 2024 08.00 EDT
The first thing members of the Pansy Collective, based in Asheville, North Carolina, did following the start of Hurricane Helene was reach out to each other, ensuring that everyone was OK, and helping people who needed to evacuate. As soon as they were able to get down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Asheville is nestled, they drove more than 200 miles to Durham to gather supplies and bring them back to Asheville.
The Pansy Collective is just one of several mutual-aid disaster-relief organizations that have mobilized across Florida and the Carolinas since Hurricane Helene made landfall on 26 September.
Since the storm hit, growing from a category 1 to a category 4 hurricane in a day, at least 220 people have died, while at least 200 others remain missing. Thousands of others have been displaced. Helene was the strongest documented hurricane to strike Florida’s Big Bend region and the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland US since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
While the federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient response – it is these individuals, largely neighbors helping neighbors, who are filling in the gaps.
Even as people lost their own homes and belongings, they were still out organizing, said Garrett Blaize, executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund.
“In Appalachia, we have a really strong network of both formal and informal mutual-aid groups,” Blaize said. “We saw many of those groups activated immediately after the first impacts of the storm, as well as the kind of more organic and informal mutual aid: church groups, volunteer associations, neighbors. That all happened really quickly.”
www.theguardian.com
The federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient – response
Adria R Walker
Sun 6 Oct 2024 08.00 EDT
The first thing members of the Pansy Collective, based in Asheville, North Carolina, did following the start of Hurricane Helene was reach out to each other, ensuring that everyone was OK, and helping people who needed to evacuate. As soon as they were able to get down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Asheville is nestled, they drove more than 200 miles to Durham to gather supplies and bring them back to Asheville.
The Pansy Collective is just one of several mutual-aid disaster-relief organizations that have mobilized across Florida and the Carolinas since Hurricane Helene made landfall on 26 September.
Since the storm hit, growing from a category 1 to a category 4 hurricane in a day, at least 220 people have died, while at least 200 others remain missing. Thousands of others have been displaced. Helene was the strongest documented hurricane to strike Florida’s Big Bend region and the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland US since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
While the federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient response – it is these individuals, largely neighbors helping neighbors, who are filling in the gaps.
Even as people lost their own homes and belongings, they were still out organizing, said Garrett Blaize, executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund.
“In Appalachia, we have a really strong network of both formal and informal mutual-aid groups,” Blaize said. “We saw many of those groups activated immediately after the first impacts of the storm, as well as the kind of more organic and informal mutual aid: church groups, volunteer associations, neighbors. That all happened really quickly.”
‘We look after our neighbors’: how mutual-aid groups are filling the gaps after Hurricane Helene
The federal government, state governments and larger non-profits have had a slower – and, say some residents, insufficient – response
www.theguardian.com
