Newsletter October 2024
Samaritan’s Purse Delivers Thanksgiving Meals in Western North Carolina
Felicia Honeycutt was miles from home at work when the worst of Hurricane Helene hit her community. It took three days for her to get home where she cares for an ailing husband in the Big Creek community of Yancey County, North Carolina. As residents enter Thanksgiving, now, more than two months into an ongoing…
Volunteers Serve a Carolina Family Mourning Terrible Loss
Nothing remained where her sister’s home once stood. No furniture, clothes, or kitchen dishes. Anna Wiebe and her husband, Ryan, stood in silence as they stared at the expanse of water that now consumed the family’s property. Neither knew what to say. “I was numb and in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that this was happening,”…
Shoebox Packers Go From Devastation to Celebration
She peered through a busted window into the church basement and saw that floodwaters from Hurricane Helene had left a muddy mess. The Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift items that First Baptist Church of Damascus, Virginia, had collected during the year were now wet and filthy. Jaz, age 11, saw something that gave her hope—a…
Newsletter November 2024
Finding Joy in Jesus After the Storm
Winds roared through Scott’s quiet neighborhood in the heart of Valdosta, Georgia, as Hurricane Helene pushed north past Florida and into the Peach State. In the dark night sky, the towering pines overhead crashed down onto his house, bursting through the ceiling as he and his wife, Terri, huddled in the bathroom. “If you look…
Water Filtration Systems Deployed to the Asheville Area
Samaritan’s Purse is once again expanding relief efforts in western North Carolina with the deployment of community water filtration systems to the town of Swannanoa and other hard-hit areas. Designed by a Samaritan’s Purse team of engineers, each water system can provide up to 50,000 liters of clean water daily—enough for 10,000 people. These units…
Helping the Hurricane-Ravaged Florida Coast
Diane Pangburn had lived under a roof of blue tarp and damaged shingles since Hurricane Ian tore across her Florida community in 2022. When Hurricane Milton roared ashore in early October, it shredded that covering and torrential rain was channeled into her home. Milton, following so closely after Hurricane Helene, left many areas underwater. Bewildered…
Press Release Western North Carolina Communities Rally to Give Back Through Samaritan’s Purse Project, Operation Christmas Child
Responding in Charlotte County After Hurricane Milton’s Rumble Through Florida
Milton unleashed torrential rain and ferocious winds across Florida after making landfall Wednesday evening, Oct. 9, near Siesta Key, south of Sarasota. The deadly and powerful storm, which entered the state as a Category 3 hurricane and left as a Category 1 on Thursday morning, spawned tornadoes and caused severe flooding. The Tampa area, spared…