Response In North Carolina Ramped Up By The Christian Relief Organization

Samaritan’s Purse, the international Christian relief organization headquartered in Boone, North Carolina,  has mobilized emergency airlift operations and also deployed an Emergency Field Hospital in western North Carolina to provide aid and assistance to citizens who have been isolated from basic necessities and medical treatment by destruction of roads and other infrastructure caused by Hurricane Helene.

The field hospital is set up to assist Cannon Memorial Hospital in Avery County, North Carolina, an area in the heart of the destruction. The 20-bed hospital will help alleviate the strain on the system by providing triage support, emergency medical care, oxygen, and an in-patient facility if the main hospital exceeds capacity.

Samaritan’s Purse has also brought in two multi-bed field hospital oxygen units to other local hospitals for patients who don’t have power in their homes.

The organization flew a helicopter with a slingload of food and water to twelve isolated families in Newland, NC, and to deliver a generator and a starlink terminal to a care facility in Spruce Pine, NC. That facility has been without power for four days and supplies were running out. Samaritan’s Purse plans similar operations to reach churches and other care facilities that can distribute critical relief supplies to inaccessible communities.

The organization has also deployed Disaster Relief Units – tractor trailers stocked with tools and equipment – to Asheville and Boone, NC, Perry and Tampa, Florida, and Valdosta, Georgia.

Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse said, “Our hearts break for all those who have been devastated by Hurricane Helene. People have lost their homes, roads are washed out, millions are without power, and some have even lost loved ones—so many of our neighbors are hurting. We're thankful that we can respond and help in Jesus’ Name. Please pray for these families and for our teams that are working in some of the hardest hit areas across the Southeast.”

FMI:  www.samaritanspurse.org/