Samaritan's Purse deploys lifesaving efforts and supplies in the aftermath of Helene's destruction

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From building a temporary hospital to providing supplies via helicopter and more, Samaritan's Purse has been on the ground providing critical help across western North Carolina.

Transcript

00:00In the weeks since Hurricane Helene's destructive path began, many organizations have mobilized

00:05to help those in need.

00:06That's right.

00:07Now, one of those organizations is humanitarian aid organization Samaritan's Purse.

00:12That's in full response mode right now in all states impacted by that storm.

00:17And Chief Operating Officer of Samaritan's Purse, Edward Graham, joins us now from Boone,

00:21North Carolina.

00:22Edward, your location, your headquarters, is right there in the middle of all of this.

00:29Thanks so much for making time for us here.

00:31Can you share what is on your mind here in terms of the deployment and the relief work

00:36that your group is doing?

00:38Yeah, like I told you earlier, we're surrounded where the floodwaters were.

00:43We're working hard to even get our own staff and people that work here at the headquarters

00:48back into work this week.

00:50But we had many of our staff even going out and volunteering on Monday morning.

00:54We had hundreds, about over 800 that first morning here in Boone, going out to serve

00:59and laying there in the afternoon.

01:00They're still going out.

01:01Our local church, Alliance Bible Fellowship, but we're also serving in Asheville, Georgia,

01:05two locations in Florida, a lot of work to be done.

01:08But there's also rescue work and bringing food and water to these stranded locations.

01:13So we're using our helicopter.

01:15We brought in more helicopters, local donated aircraft.

01:19And also we've leased to UH-60s to continue to take these needed materials, these waters

01:25and food life-saving material.

01:27And also we bought a couple, almost a thousand generators, and we're going to start projecting

01:31those into these cutoff areas so people can have power.

01:34All right.

01:35So tell us more about the temporary hospital that you built.

01:38What kind of medical help out there is needed?

01:42Yeah, this is a tier one hospital.

01:44So this is more of an emergency room capable hospital plugged into a small hospital in

01:48Avery County.

01:49We're in Sister County next door, a beautiful location.

01:51That's where people go to snow ski when they're up here in the mountains, but they needed

01:55some help.

01:56We're also doing oxygen capable tents that go along with these hospitals.

02:00We had it here in Boone.

02:02We've already moved that one to another location because when the oxygen tanks and people having

02:06their power off, they can't recharge them.

02:08The hospital is out.

02:09So they've asked us to come in and plug into that network and we're doing that in three

02:13other locations as well.

02:14But the tier one's already been treating a lot of patients, helping that little small

02:18hospital there in Avery County.

02:20So pray for those.

02:21There's a lot going on.

02:22There's a lot of need, but we appreciate God giving us these resources to respond.

02:27We don't do this for good work.

02:29We don't do this for charity.

02:30We want people to know their love, not forsaken, not forgotten about.

02:33God's not angry.

02:34I love him so much.

02:35He said he's only son Jesus while we go.

02:39And so many lives have been changed by this.

02:41How is Samaritan's Purse providing some of the emotional and spiritual support in these

02:46difficult days?

02:47That's a great question.

02:49We partner with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, a grandfather's ministry.

02:54They have trained chaplains on how to share hope in crisis.

02:57So when our orange shirt volunteers are going out and they're ministering and they're doing

03:00the debris removal, cutting trees, mudding out these muddy homes, tarping roofs, these

03:04chaplains are there to listen to these stories.

03:08We may have just lost Edward Graham's feed there, maybe due to cell service problems.

03:15And again, that's been an ongoing issue here in the mountains of Western North Carolina

03:18right now.

03:19Mr. Graham, are you back with us?

03:22I'm here if you can hear me.

03:24Yes, we hear you clear as a bell.

03:25We lost you just early in that last answer.

03:30Could you repeat that answer?

03:31I'm sorry.

03:32Yeah, so spiritually, we have the Billy Graham chaplains that go along with us, and they're

03:36trained, they're sharing hope in crisis.

03:39The Billy Graham organization is Charlotte, and they partner everywhere we go when we

03:44have disasters.

03:45But when our orange shirts, our volunteers are doing the muck outs, the debris removal,

03:49the cutting of the trees, they're there listening to the stories.

03:52And most of the time, it's just listening.

03:54It's just that's part of the healing process, and hearing that conversation.

03:58Most of our people that we minister to, they'll say, I haven't cried until I started talking

04:02to you.

04:03And we're not there to make them cry.

04:05All this emotion comes flooding out of them because they've had such loss and such devastation.

04:10And pray for these families.

04:11There's a lot of uncounted for, and the body count's going to keep going up.

04:16And so it's going to take a long time for these communities to heal.

04:19All right, Edward, so real quick, how can folks donate and help out with the recovery

04:24efforts?

04:25Yeah, I appreciate it.

04:27I really need volunteers to stay committed for a long time and come even weeks and months

04:31from now.

04:32We're going to be here for a long time.

04:33But if you want to get involved, you can go to Samaritan'sPurse.org or SPVolunteer.org.

04:39Both those locations will show you how you can volunteer.

04:42And we'd also really appreciate your prayers.

04:44Pray.

04:45All right, Edward Graham, Chief Operating Officer of Samaritan's Purse, thank you so

04:50much for joining us.

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