Two relief workers from the Treasure Valley are among hundreds helping people in the south recover from Hurricane Helene.
They were on duty even as Hurricane Milton ripped across Florida last week.
Katie Adams, a Malheur County resident, and Jennifer Bivert, a disaster program manager with the American Red Cross from Payette, were deployed on Wednesday, Oct. 2, to help with relief near Greenville, South Carolina.
Hurricane Helene clobbered communities across the South when it made landfall on Sept. 26 in Florida and moved north. As of Saturday, Oct. 6, the New York Times reported that the death toll had reached at least 234 as more bodies are recovered.
Bivert coordinated relief efforts with the Red Cross during the Cow Valley and Durkee wildfires last summer. Now, she manages a warehouse in Greenville that is supplying shelters in the area.
Meantime, Adams is managing a shelter nearby.
The pair are expected to be deployed until around Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Bivert said the conditions on the ground were “chaotic” when they arrived. The hurricane obliterated portions of South Carolina, washing away homes, destroying roads and knocking out electricity and cellphone service for millions.
She said in an interview on Tuesday, Oct. 8 that power and cellphone service had just been restored in the Greenville area.
Bivert said she and Adams flew into Charlotte. The 100-mile drive to Greenville normally would take about two hours. But because of what Bivert said was “tremendous destruction,” it took five.
Adams, who is in her first deployment to an area ravaged by a hurricane, is working 12-hour shifts, Bivert said.
“She is making a big sacrifice,” she said.
Adams, 22, said her job is to ensure people have food and water when they get to the shelter. So far, she said, there are 20 people at the shelter. Adams said the volunteers expect more people as officials close others in the area.
The shelter that she has been deployed to opened on Tuesday, Oct. 8
She said the scale of the destruction was massive in some areas they passed through, which, she said, was “challenging” to see.
“There are people who have lost everything,” Adams said.
Bivert said she had not seen federal aid deliberately withheld or slowed as rumors online had suggested in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Adams said she had not seen aid diverted from the shelter to other areas. She said the Red Cross and the state have pooled resources.
Bivert said she had not heard about the misinformation circulating that relief aid was being diverted until people contacted her about them. She said she had not been online for a couple of days.
“I haven’t even had time to look,” she said.
She said box trucks are delivering supplies to far-flung areas.
“I haven’t seen anything held back,” she said. “We’ve been trucking things out all day, every day since I’ve been here.”
She said with washed-out roads and flooding, it could take hours to get supplies to inland mountain towns. However, Bivert said she has more than 30 volunteers spending hours on the road to get aid to people.
She said two volunteers took food and medicine to an infant on a feeding tube. They left early that morning and did not return until late at night, she said.
“They’re working all day long and are very passionate about volunteering,” Bivert said. “That’s why they came here to help.”
Bivert said those interested in volunteering for the Red Cross can visit redcross.org.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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