Metro organizations partner to get water, supplies to hurricane victims

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As cleanup efforts begin in Florida from Hurricane Milton and needs are assessed, Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina and elsewhere still need aid.

One of the big needs is water; it’s being shipped by truck and by plane from Kansas City to North Carolina, which proved to be the hardest hit by Helene.

Dr. Darryl Nelson, Chief Medical Officer at Centerpoint Medical Center, and his daughter, Emily, Practice Manager at HCA Midwest, have a private plane. Shortly after Helene hit North Carolina the pair were on their way to pick up supplies in Charlotte and take them to mountain communities devastated by flooding and mudslides as a part of Operation Airdrop.

“When you arrive it was honestly just heartwarming, especially from the first ones we went to. There were 100 plus volunteers. You pull in and you cut the engine off and they just make an assembly line basically and you just hand one thing off at a time and they pass it down this line of people and it was just amazing,” Emily Nelson said.

They shuttled more than 1,200 pounds of supplies in just the first of three days of flights.

“It was really a telling story of people helping people they were just so grateful to have some initial supplies,” Dr. Darryl Nelson said.

Jackson County legislator Manny Abarca found out more about the continued dire need for water through the National Association of Counties. Jackson County allocated 12 thousand dollars and Abarca started a GoFundMe . But he wanted to make sure people had another easy way to contribute and make sure there was water available.

“That is part of the challenge, there is no water there to buy. so the idea to be able to go to a grocery store and say hey I can chip in a case of water, 4 or 5 bucks, anyone it is attainable for them to contribute in this way,” Abarca said.

He partnered with Teamsters to ship the water and Harvesters which already sent 6 trucks of water and food last week to food banks in Georgia.

In partnership with the Kansas City Fire Department, water is being collected at Fire Station 35, 3200 Emanuel Cleaver Blvd., Fire Station 14, 8300 North Brighton Ave. and Fire Station 36, 9902 Holmes Road through Monday, October 14.

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