Americares awards $1 million to medical organizations affected by Helene

Recently, we reported on local support for victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including from Americares. Now the Stamford-based nonprofit has awarded more than $1 million in emergency funding to restore access to care for Hurricane Helene survivors in five states. Twenty-eight nonprofits providing free or low-cost care to survivors in need are receiving funding to keep their doors open, repair storm damage, replace damaged medicine and medical equipment, purchase generators and do outreach to underserved communities. The grants range from $20,000 to $150,000.

“When disasters strike, those who have the least often struggle the most,” said Americares President and CEO Christine Squires, who was in North Carolina and Tennessee last week meeting with partner organizations assisting storm survivors. “Families in poverty, or just on the edge, need our help now and in the months ahead. With our support, more families coping with destruction and loss from Helene will be able to access the care they need.”

In Asheville, North Carolina, Mercy Urgent Care plans to use a portion of its grant funding from Americares to replace damaged equipment and medicine destroyed due to power outages. All eight Mercy locations in western North Carolina – which provide low-cost care to residents, including the uninsured and residents reliant on the tourism industry – were impacted by the storm.

“When you are a nonprofit, you are not here to make a profit – you are here to make an impact,” said Mercy Urgent Care President and CEO Rachel Sossoman. “You open your doors in a time of crisis, and you do that in good faith that your brothers and sisters will support you. Americares is one of those family members doing the right thing.”

In Church Hill, Tennessee, Church Hill Medical Mission plans to use funding from Americares to purchase fuel, a solar-powered generator and an all-terrain vehicle to bring medical care to migrant workers and other communities in hard-to-reach rural areas. Many patients lost vehicles in the storm and no longer have transportation for medical appointments.

“There are people who are without their heart medicine, their respiratory medicine, their cholesterol medication for a month now,” said Church Hill Medical Mission Clinic Director Kathy Christian, who has been operating a mobile clinic out of the back of a car. “We’ll go out until the people can get to their doctors.”

At Mountain Community Health Partnership in hard-hit Burnsville, North Carolina, CEO Tim Evans said emergency funding from Americares is helping to keep their health facilities open in mountain communities where schools are still closed, and the tap water is unsafe to drink a month after the hurricane. Their Micaville location, a behavioral health-care facility and physical therapy center, was flooded with 7 feet of water and is now beyond repair. A former social worker, he worries about the mental health needs in the months ahead as his staff and 10,000 patients face a long recovery.

“We have at least four employees who lost everything,” Evans said.

In addition to providing emergency funding, Americares deployed disaster mental health specialists to western North Carolina to support health-care providers and first responders and dispatched a mobile clinic in October to provide medical care in the hardest-hit areas.

Americares continues to provide mental health support and deliver medicine and relief supplies to partner clinics and health-care facilities. To date, Americares has shipped more than 16 tons of medicine and supplies, including 1,300 bottles of infant formula and 3,800 tetanus vaccines. At the same time, four water purification systems provided by Americares and Planet Water Foundation continue to bring safe drinking water to sections of Asheville and Swannanoa, North Carolina.

Americares deployed emergency response teams to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee after Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 26 and headed north, carving a path of destruction. North Carolina is reporting 101 deaths related to the hurricane, including 43 fatalities in hard-hit Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. Americares has been on the ground in the region for the past month, meeting the health needs.

Americares responds to more than 35 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide each year, establishes long-term recovery projects and brings preparedness programs to communities vulnerable to disasters. The organization has a long history of responding to flooding and major storms in the southeastern United States, including Hurricanes Florence, Ian, Idalia and Michael in recent years. For more, click here.