Volunteers from across Wisconsin respond to those impacted by Hurricane Helene

For the past few days, Dave Nelson has been working night and day, over 1,000 miles away from his home in Eau Claire. He traveled to Tallahassee, Florida, to help those impacted by the devastation left behind from Hurricane Helene.

“I have a strong belief in the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’” Nelson said. “And this is my opportunity to give back to our country and to these communities that are in very bad need.”

Nelson is one of 30 volunteers with the American Red Cross of Wisconsin who have responded to the disaster in the past few days. Sixteen members of Wisconsin’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force traveled to North Carolina to help with the recovery efforts there. And Generac, a Wisconsin-based company that makes generators, sent a response team to South Carolina Wednesday to fix generators for people impacted by the storm.

Hurricane Helene caused widespread flooding and damage across the southeast. The death toll passed 180 Wednesday, according to a report from CNN.

Jennifer Warren, a regional communications director for the Red Cross of Wisconsin, said volunteers from the state have joined more than 900 Red Cross volunteers from across the nation down south. 

The volunteers, or “disaster relief specialists,” are scattered across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Warren said they’re working in shelters and handing out comfort kits, as well as providing “meals, emotional support and relief supplies.” 

“They (volunteers) also just hand out water, food and provide comfort and care to the people who have been impacted by the hurricane,” Warren said. 

“We will be there for as long as it takes,” she added. “I feel like we’re still finding out the level of destruction and how bad this storm was, and we will be there to support people in that area for as long as it takes to get them back on their feet.”

Nelson is working at the headquarters for emergency management coordinators in Tallahassee.  

“They need feeding, they need sheltering, they need supplies. And all that comes through me,” he said.

Nelson said other volunteers, some from Wisconsin, are driving emergency response vehicles to distribute the supplies to areas that were hit hard.

“And in some cases, there’s nothing left,” Nelson said.

“You kind of get lost and just trying to get the work done and making sure people get the response that they need to get, and you kind of forget about yourself,” he added.

State Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, is volunteering with the Red Cross in Hudson, Florida. Clancy said he’s been responding to disasters with the nonprofit for the past eight years. 

“This is one of the worst that we’ve seen,” Clancy said.

Clancy said Hudson is a community that has experienced three hurricanes in the past 13 months.

“What we’ve been doing over the last couple of days especially is just listening to folks and hearing their stories, and that’s an important part of the process, too,” Clancy said.

Wisconsin firefighters help with rescue effort in North Carolina

Sixteen members of Wisconsin’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, or Wisconsin Task Force 1, arrived in western North Carolina on Saturday.

Their assistance was requested through the nationwide Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

“States supporting one another during natural disasters or emergencies is a core emergency management value and helps make us a more resilient nation,” Wisconsin Emergency Management Administrator Greg Engle said in a statement.

Katie Rousonelos, a spokesperson for Wisconsin Emergency Management, said firefighters from Appleton, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Janesville, La Crosse, Neenah, Menasha, Oshkosh and Superior responded to the request.

“They’ve been navigating that terrain out there … to gain access to residents in those mountain areas that have been cut off from communications following that flooding that occurred,” Rousonelos said. 

Rousonelos said the members are also performing “swift water searches,” or searches in fast moving water areas.

“This is a team that’s made of highly skilled people from communities across the state that can respond to both state and national disasters,” Rousonelos said.

More volunteers needed

Warren with the Red Cross said it’s likely more volunteers will head south in the coming days. She said the national nonprofit has already provided more than 25,000 meals and more than 18,000 overnight stays for people impacted by the hurricane.

Asheville, North Carolina, was especially hard by the storm. That’s where Nikki Hernandez used to live. Hernandez lives in Milwaukee now, but said she recently went to Asheville to help her friends and others impacted by Helene.

“This is very much a rescue mission — not recovery, even yet,” Hernandez said. 

Hernandez is back in Milwaukee now and is attempting to bring supplies like bottled water, clothing, diapers, shoes and blankets that she gathers from the community back to Asheville.

“My goal is to stay down there for a time, because the county needs people on foot to go door-to-door,” Hernandez said. 

“I want to get down there with supplies, and that’s how I want to spend my time,” she added. 

Hernandez said she had hoped to move back to Asheville in a year or so.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, because it’s going to take a lot of effort, a long, long time for the rebuild,” she said.