In an exclusive interview with American Family News, Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham talks about the need and what you can do about it.
The world moved on from Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee fairly quickly after Hurricane Helene smashed through the region. Ninety-two people lost their lives in the area, but thousands lost their homes and many of them are still in dire need of food, water, shelter and power. Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham tells AFN problems were starting to pile up even before the hurricane hit.
“We had torrential rains from one week prior to Helene coming, tropical force rains, just heavy, heavy. So all the rivers and all the creeks were already full, and then Helene comes, and now entire mountainsides started coming down.”
Entire communities were wiped out, and critical infrastructure was destroyed in many other mountain towns.
“So all this water comes into your house, and it's mixed with raw sewage, and then the water recedes, and it just leaves this filthy muck. Then all this stuff has to be built back. So, the problem is people don't have flood insurance.”
Powerful ministry response
The carnage is surrounding Samaritans Purse’s home base, so Graham says they were there from the start 
and continue to do what they can to help.
“But we've purchased, so far, over 3,500 generators. We flew these generators, and we flew fuel, and they could plug in and get electricity back. And that was a huge need.”
Graham says winter is on the way, and already there's frost most mornings, so they've handed out 13,000 blankets. He says the need will persist for years.
“As the storm gets further behind us, the need of the people is still there, and we're still going to need volunteers to help.”
Go to SamaritansPurse.org for more information.
