Members of LDS Church, Utahns help those affected by Helene, prepare for Milton

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — along with the American Red Cross and a Davis County business, Crazy Candy — are helping many pick up the pieces after Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeast.

Other Utahns with the Red Cross are stationed in Florida, helping those in the Tampa area prepare for another dangerous hurricane: Hurricane Milton.

More than 6,000 volunteers from the LDS church taveled to various parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to assist in the relief efforts at more than 3,000 homes, according to a press release from the church.

Volunteers through the Helping Hands humanitarian service spent more than 77,000 combined hours mucking out flooded homes, clearing debris, removing downed trees, and tarping roofs, the church said.

“This [service] is a wonderful opportunity for us to think about our eternal natures and the eternal natures of those people that we come in contact with,” volunteer Stacey Bruno said.

Kyle Gillett, an LDS stake president in Asheville, North Carolina, works at a hospital and said he has seen people working night and day, helping and serving others.

“It’s certainly not just members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [doing service here],” Gillett said. “We’re embedded in the Bible Belt, and there are so many people who are seeking to serve and do what Christ would do at this time.”

In addition to the efforts of the Utah-based LDS church, Heather Andersen — the president of Utah-based Crazy Candy — is helping out, too.

“I sat there and thought, ‘What can I do to help? What can my family do to help?’ The immediate thought that I had was, ‘Send a semi,'” Andersen told ABC4.com.

The company is asking other local businesses and Utah residents to donate goods and supplies so that it can send a semi-truck filled with donations to North Carolina.

Hurricane Milton preparations

Now, with Hurricane Milton cutting a path directly toward the west central Florida coast and the surrounding areas, seven Utahns have been stationed in Orlando to help when Hurricane Milton makes landfall later this week.

Milton’s storm surge is expected to top Hurricane Helene, with projections of 10 to 15 feet. Along with being a strong category four and category five hurricane, National Hurricane Center projections have called for the storm to hit the west central Florida coast sometime late Wednesday to early Thursday.

“Effects of Milton will begin to be felt Wednesday night,” ABC4 meteorologist Cedric Haynes said.

Haynes said predictions suggest that storm surge near the eye will consistently be above 12 feet — and even though the storm surge might be south of Tampa, the stronger wind field will be closer to Clearwater and Tampa Bay areas.

“There is no one alive that has experienced the track of this storm,” Haynes said.

There are only two other hurricanes that have taken a similar track, and both were in the 1800s, which shows the rarity of a track of this nature.

“For those staying [in the area], prepare to hunker down and be without power for multiple days,” Haynes said.

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