By Gabe Ross | November 27, 2020 at 10:19 AM EST – Updated November 27 at 10:19 AM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – With the festive season in full swing, our charitable priorities tend to shift to helping those in need for the holidays. But after this year’s exceptionally active Hurricane Season, the need is even greater. And those hit the hardest—including those in our area still need your help.
“This has been a devastating hurricane season,” said James Jarvis, Executive Director of the American Red Cross of Eastern North Carolina. “I know I personally deployed to Louisiana to help with Hurricane Laura relief. Which was the most powerful storm to ever strike the state.”
It only takes one storm to cause catastrophic damage but Consider areas like the Gulf Coast that have taken hit after hit from the likes of Laura, Marco, Hannah, Sally, Beta and Delta.
Locally Hurricane Isaias, left its mark on the Brunswick County coast, making landfall as a strong Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
And in a moments notice, Organizations like the Salvation Army, The Red Cross, and many others jump into action.
“A lot of what’s happening now with the Salvation Army, is it not so much the response to the prior hurricanes but now it’s also in line with our preparing for the next one,” said Major Mark Craddock, Corps officer of the Salvation Army of the Cape Fear.
The cleanup continues, despite the passage of months and even years after a devastating storm. Those who lost everything still need help putting the pieces back together.
Concerned your donation will get allocated somewhere else? It’s important to remember that most charitable organizations honor donor intent.
“Wherever you as a donor would like for your donations to go, be at hurricane relief (wildfire relief) we’re obviously going to honor those intentions,” said Jarvis. “We would ask you to consider doing disaster relief more generally so that gives us a little more flexibility to flow it to where it’s needed most.”
“Cash in this kind of event is the most helpful thing we can do for the family, because we can convert that into so many different services and make it more individualized as we need to,” added Craddock. “The other part of that is that if someone wants to donate materials, we would recommend you at this point think of things that she would have to have immediately after an event.”
The Atlantic Hurricane Season ends November 30th.
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