Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday, September 26, with wind speeds reaching 125 miles per hour, before continuing on toward states on the East Coast including Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas.
Impacted areas include the Florida Panhandle and Florida’s “Big Bend” – rural and less populated communities along Florida’s northern Gulf coast. Many of these communities are still recovering from Hurricane Idalia, which ripped through Florida earlier this summer. Families are expected to face challenges meeting basic needs, including the risk of weeks-long power outages and, for some, long-term displacement from homes.
Families unable to evacuate their homes need temporary shelter. Residents of the affected areas also urgently need cash, clothing, food, water, medicine and other basic supplies. Many of the most vulnerable families who did not have the financial resources to evacuate will not have the reserves to rebound from this devastating storm and will need both immediate assistance and support while they determine their long-term plans.
CARE’s Response
Since 2020, CARE has worked to create a robust network of humanitarian partners around the U.S., particularly locally led organizations rooted in their communities, to provide food, jobs, and emergency resources through our CARE Partner Network. To date we have deployed $1.8 million in direct cash assistance, impacting nearly 10,000 individuals across our network. In 2023, CARE launched an emergency response in Perry, Florida, to support impacted community members and maintains active links with local partners in the area. Much devastation from Hurricane Helene has occurred in the rural area of Perry, an area that is still struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Idalia in 2023 and whose residents risk falling into further hardship.
Short-term Relief: For the immediate relief phase, we will prioritize providing up to $1,000 in cash assistance to affected families so they can purchase items they need to weather this crisis. Cash will ensure that families can meet their unique needs and access essential foods, medicines, and hygiene supplies. Cash assistance can make a particular difference for women and girls, as their needs are often overlooked during a crisis. No major humanitarian response organization in the U.S. other than CARE is specifically targeting women-led, vulnerable families – even though it is these communities who often bear the worst of a disaster’s impact.
CARE is widely respected worldwide for our experience in effectively using cash interventions as a tool during emergencies. In the U.S., cash is often what families need most, yet is an underutilized tool in the provision of emergency relief. In addition to cash, CARE may provide “last mile delivery” of food and clean drinking water to families who do not have access to local shelters.
We will work directly across our national network to respond to Hurricane Helene, including with partners in Florida and Georgia. CARE enables local partners whose immediate program focus does not include cash assistance to expand their reach beyond providing basic relief such as food and safe shelter. In partnership with CARE, they will be able to reach affected families with what they need most – cash. Through our partnerships, we are able to reach vulnerable families quickly in the affected areas. Together we will ensure they have access to essential resources needed to recover from the storm.
Longer-term Recovery: Providing support beyond the initial relief phase is an essential component of sustainable recovery. Survivors face the possibility of living without power, clean water, and access to adequate and affordable transportation for an extended period, so they will need assistance to rebuild their livelihoods. Many of those without insurance will struggle to rebuild their homes. CARE’s support to hurricane-affected communities will continue at least through the end of 2024. We will continue to identify vulnerable families in need of cash assistance and engage our networks for large-scale and sustained delivery of food and other resources.
Why CARE?
CARE is committed to supporting those who are overlooked and underserved. While Florida and Georgia have robust state emergency response teams and are receiving funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support those in need, these systems do not account for communities that are – for a multitude of reasons – unable to access their services. Many families are unable to relocate safely due to financial burdens. Others live in smaller communities that will not receive local and state support on the same scale as larger cities. Vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and families with young children, will need last-mile delivery of goods and services. Our goal is to provide meaningful and innovative assistance – to reach new communities, not duplicate work of other agencies. CARE is bringing the best of our global emergency response expertise home to the U.S., and we are starting by upholding our value of providing the overlooked and underserved with adequate and equitable support.
Funding Target
CARE has an initial goal of raising $1 million to launch our relief efforts in Florida and Georgia and assist a minimum of 1,000 low-income families as quickly as possible, with a direct impact of nearly 4,000 individuals. This will allow us not only to deliver immediate assistance to displaced families, but also help them along the difficult path to recovery in the months to come.
Some examples of how your gift could help families affected by Hurricane Helene include:
• $750 can provide a family of four with housing for a week
• $300 can provide a month’s supply of food and other essential products for a family of 4
• $125 can provide a week of food to a family of four
• $8 can provide a case of water for a family in need
It will take many months for Florida and Georgia to recover from this catastrophe. Families are likely to be displaced from their home communities until they are able rebuild their houses or find new ones. If we act now, we can keep people from falling into deeper hardship. With your support, CARE is ramping up our efforts to meet the most critical needs of storm-affected families – people whose homes have been destroyed and lives uprooted by this catastrophe – and helping them recover in the long term. Thank you for considering a generous gift.
UPDATES RELATED TO HURRICANE MILTON
Hurricane Milton hit Florida on the evening of October 9 as a Category 3 hurricane. Residents are tallying the impact after the storm tore across the state overnight, hammering some areas with 18 inches of rain, causing heavy flooding, and knocking out power for millions of homes. Many remain trapped as search and rescue teams continue to bring families to safety.
CARE is preparing to respond to needs in hard-hit communities in the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas, two parts of Florida where we have strong partnerships already in place. The CARE Partner Network, our mechanism for providing domestic emergency support, allows us to back local responders who are well placed to reach the most vulnerable affected people within their own communities, multiplying their effectiveness.
CARE is already responding in the Tampa Bay area in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and working through the CARE Partner Network, we will support immediate and longer-term recovery needs following Hurricane Milton in both Tampa and Orlando through our local partners. Our response will prioritize emergency cash assistance alongside our partners while they focus on food security and housing needs. Where appropriate, CARE can also support the provision of in-kind assistance such as food and clean drinking water.
CARE’s Response
Since 2020, CARE has worked to create a robust network of humanitarian partners around the U.S., particularly locally led organizations rooted in their communities, to provide food, jobs, and emergency resources through our CARE Partner Network. To date we have deployed $1.8 million in direct cash assistance, impacting nearly 10,000 individuals across our network. CARE is specifically targeting women-led, vulnerable families – who often bear the worst of a disaster’s impact.
Short-term Relief: For the immediate relief phase, we will prioritize providing up to $1,000 in cash assistance to affected families so they can purchase items they need to weather this crisis. Cash will ensure that families can meet their unique needs – including the often overlooked particular needs of women and girls. CARE is widely respected worldwide for our experience in effectively using cash interventions as a tool during emergencies. In the U.S., cash is an underutilized tool in the provision of emergency relief. In addition to enabling our local partners to provide cash assistance, CARE may provide “last-mile delivery” of food and clean drinking water to families in need.
Longer-term Recovery: Providing support beyond the initial relief phase is essential to sustainable recovery. Survivors face the possibility of living without power, clean water, and access to transportation for an extended period, so they will need assistance to rebuild their livelihoods. Many of those without insurance will struggle to rebuild their homes. CARE’s support to hurricane-affected communities will continue at least through the end of 2024. We will continue to identify vulnerable families needing cash assistance and engage our networks for large-scale and sustained delivery of food and other resources.
As communities face the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, CARE is partnering with dedicated local responders, lending our unparalleled global expertise to their efforts. We seek to ensure that the most vulnerable families – including women-headed households, the elderly, and those with young children – are not overlooked. We thank you for considering a generous gift in support of this important work.
