The Heroes of Hurricanes Milton and Helene

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Join us in spotlighting those selflessly giving back and uniting communities in the wake of two devastating hurricanes in Florida. | SUCCESS

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community members helping clear debris after a hurricane

Mister Rogers (and his mom!) reminded generations to “look for the helpers” amidst difficult or trying times. In the wake of not one but two devastating hurricanes along the East and Florida coasts the past month, the helpers are rich in numbers. While we certainly never want to downplay the more than 250 deaths (251 to Helene and currently 24 to Milton), we recognize that good people can be found amongst the rubble and destruction.

Here are their stories, many nominated by those inspired by their selflessness and heroism.

Katie Blaxberg, along with her friends and Eisenhower Elementary educators, helped organize and distribute food and supplies to meet the needs of the many students who were rescued from the floods following Hurricane Milton. Of the over 500 people rescued from the floods, 116 were kids, and Katie led the group to provide the help the children needed.

“What started as ‘Let’s help the teachers hand out treats while they look for their students’ turned into a full-on pop-up store in the parking lot across from the apartments for the entire weekend—meeting needs from emotional support, to lunch, to house supplies and clothes,” Latvala shared.

“A police officer was helping a woman who was very emotionally distraught, carrying a trash bag with her few items. Katie went over, took the items from the woman, helped her up, put her arm around her and walked her across the street to help give her dignity and the emotional support she needed in that moment.

“I could go on and on about the women of that community and how everyone gave something to make it happen. We were all moved by the emotions of watching families walk out with trash bags and having nothing left and nowhere to go. But what moved us more is the willingness of all of our neighbors to love them.

“Many people pulled over and offered all the supplies they had in their car, so many groups brought food to feed everyone. Rotary brought so many home supplies we could distribute. But I won’t forget the love and compassion of Katie holding that woman up walking across the street.”

Ben Colvin of Asheville, North Carolina, is a Hurricane Helene survivor and founder of Devil’s Foot Beverage Company. In the wake of Helene, Ben and his team transformed the company’s production facility into a distribution center. The company partnered with other area breweries, including NoDa Brewing Company, Resident Culture Brewing Company and Sierra Nevada Brewing, along with volunteers, to help distribute over 16,000 gallons of water and countless pallets of food, diapers, clothing and hygiene products to families and individuals in need.

“The sheer volume of supplies provided is a reflection of the community’s solidarity and the hard work of those involved. The Devil’s Foot team has proven that in times of need, businesses can be much more than profit-driven entities; they can be lifelines for their communities,” LaMacchia shared.

Fuel Goods is a small outdoor business located at The Mill in Asheville. The company stepped up before other funds were established to help create the 828 Endurance Community and the Together We Rise relief fund, originally for their first-floor neighbor, Rockgeist Bikepack USA, who lost everything from flooding during Helene.

The goal is to sell 1,000 custom shirts for $28+/each, and the fundraiser has since grown in popularity. The brand continues to produce the shirts, and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to local relief efforts, including those that are helping Asheville families and businesses put their lives back together following the storm.

The Cajun Army was first founded in 2016 to help those who were suffering following the historic flooding in Louisiana. Since then, they’ve grown to 19,000 volunteers from various walks of life, including doctors, ex-military and ex-police—all of whom have risen to the occasion to help those in need following natural disasters.

Following Helene, The Cajun Army volunteers based themselves in Swannanoa, North Carolina, helping residents gut houses and remove debris following the flooding. Gibbs estimates that they’ve currently helped 20 people in that area. In addition to cleanup, the organization has also helped with the distribution of products, including providing special formula for a newborn baby in need and insulin for diabetics facing shortages due to the disaster.

Gibbs emphasized the organization’s scale, saying, “We’ve actually taken up the whole block, and for a while, they were doing search and rescues and delivering supplies in the mountains where people could not get to.” The organization is active on Facebook, where they help spread the word about supplies or items needed by the residents.

The BBQ restaurant provided 200 free meals to Asheville residents at Archetype Brewing following Helene. Co-owner Glenn McDaniel is a Furman graduate, and he and his family were eager to help fellow Furman alum and Archetype co-owner Brad Casanova in the company’s outreach of providing supplies, water and power. Glenn and his wife, Jeanne, raised more than $3,000 in donations from members of their church to purchase supplies to take with them in addition to the BBQ buffet.

With Glenn’s parents joining them, they filled three vehicles to the brim with food and supplies. McDaniel’s QN2 is continuing to partner with Archetype Brewing to help. In exchange for a $20 donation to the relief fund, restaurant guests will get a free four-pack of Archetype beer (while supplies last and must be age 21+), and all the funds will be used to replenish the supplies that Archetype is distributing in the community.

Tyler has extensive experience when it comes to the destruction that hurricanes can cause, including Hurricane Florence in 2018. He and his canine partner, Sniper, were deployed for 17 days to conduct search and rescues in two states–Florida and North Carolina—following Helene.

“The destruction we saw on this trip, specifically in Western North Carolina, was destruction that many people have never seen in their lives and probably will never see ever again,” Cootware says. “This team of dedicated individuals has one common goal: to help people in need to the best of our abilities.”

“This team is so mission-oriented that we have an ability to remain so laser-focused on the mission, no matter how difficult the process is,” Cootware continued. “When we started building relationships with the family members of those missing, it made our mission of bringing closure to these folks even more important to us, only motivating us even more to accomplish our goal.”

Cootware said the team’s ability to work together for the betterment of humankind was “unbelievable,” adding that “Responding to these disaster sites is a thing that only a fraction of the American population will ever do, but we as the members performing the hard work know that we are in the right spots and are doing good work.”

“The general public should continue to trust our truth and know that there are so many workers in the field doing the right things,” Cootware says.

Photo by Jack Flame Sorokin

Photographer and filmmaker Jack Flame Sorokin, based in Brooklyn, New York, whose hurricane images were recently featured in TIME

Sorokin went to Marshall, North Carolina in early October 2024 after Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September. “Marshall is an adopted home for me,” he says. “I lived there for nearly six years, and it’s where I met my wife, made some of my closest friends and really started my career. My mom still lives there, and the town holds a lot of significance for me and my family. I felt compelled to return and document the damage and recovery, because it’s not just a town I know well—it’s a place I deeply care about.”

Sorokin’s photos were recently featured in TIME magazine. He wanted to show the world how people come together to rebuild. “The overwhelming reality of being there—both physically helping and documenting—taught me that every moment held significance. Whether I was shoveling mud, salvaging items or capturing images, it all felt necessary,” he says.

One of the photographs that stands out to him is of his friend Johnny’s bass guitar, which he found in the mud under a piece of furniture in the News-Record & Sentinel building, his office. Johnny is the sole reporter for Madison County, and they went into that space together for the first time after the flood, Sorokin recalls.

“The image is meaningful because, as a musician and journalist, that guitar is an extension of Johnny. Seeing it covered in mud, like so much of what was lost, felt like a metaphor for how personal and devastating the destruction was. Some of his belongings were saved because they were above the waterline, while others, like this guitar, were damaged beyond repair. For me, the photograph reflects not just the physical loss but the emotional toll of seeing something that’s such a deep part of someone’s identity.”

Sorokin’s photography matters because, as he states himself, in a fast news cycle it’s easy for “even significant events to be overshadowed.”

Photo by FashionStock.com/Shutterstock.com

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