Recovery begins after Milton, local groups and volunteers pitching in to help

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Melanie Taylor lives in Republic, and has no ties to the areas impacted by Hurricane Helene or Milton.

She does, however, listen to the radio, and that inspired her to do something.

“I heard on the radio that Convoy of Hope is traveling down to Florida and taking hygiene kits. That was something I wasn’t aware of. I wanted to do something to help people, and I thought this might be something I could do to bring the community together and make them aware of that initiative by Convoy of Hope,” Taylor said.

She placed drop boxes in several Springfield stores as soon as she could.

“There’s going to be three locations with drop boxes set up inside the front entry door at two Price Cutter locations on South National and on East Battlefield. There’s one at Walmart on Glenstone [on the south side of Springfield],” Taylor said. “You can bring in some hygiene supplies or you can go into the store and purchase hygiene supplies and drop them in the box.”

Those drop boxes will be available until next Friday, October 18.

“I’ll go ahead and collect them and get them over to the Convoy of Hope as they’re going to be doing multiple rounds over the next many weeks into a month or so to bring relief to the residents in the Carolinas and Florida,” Taylor said. “I think everyone feels a little helpless to see so many in need. I personally just feel like I want to do something that can be helpful, and I have some time to donate this effort and just doing what I can.”

Taylor said if you wanted to give but may not have a lot to give, you can donate smaller amounts over the phone by texting “DISASTER” TO 68828, which goes straight to Convoy of Hope.

It’s the kind of volunteer work that Convoy of Hope loves to see in the community.

“We’re grateful to the people of the Ozarks for trusting Convoy of Hope and partnering with us to allow us to be able to meet the needs of our neighbors,” Ethan Forhetz said while standing next to a flooded intersection in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Forhetz is on the ground with Convoy of Hope’s advance team, looking for a place to set up their distribution center.

“We’re scouting out locations here in St. Petersburg this morning and our team is moving in through the state of Florida from Springfield. I’m talking to our U.S. disaster response leader, and he’s telling the options that we have in this area. We’re checking those out and we have an idea of what all we need for Convoy of Hope to be able to fit on that parking lot and also have distributions for the community,” Forhetz said. “We still have a team that is still working on a daily basis in North Carolina. We have a warehouse there. We’re there for the long haul to help people there because they really need the help, and this is probably going to be no different.

His team stayed in Lakeland, Florida before moving closer to the areas impacted.

“It was a wild night. It was very powerful winds outside our window. Our hotel lost power a couple of times, but not for too long,” Forhetz said. “It was the strongest wind that I’ve personally seen anywhere, and I’ve been through a couple of tornadoes, a couple of hurricanes down when I lived in the Florida area years ago.”

Forhetz details the intersection he was standing by.

“We’re seeing a lot of flooding. There’s a lot of water over the road. This road is impassable right now unless by a big truck, we’ve seen some cars turn around and come back. It’s in the houses over behind me, and that’s a big issue,” Forhetz said. “There’s two sorts of flooding. There’s the storm surge along the coast, and then when you’re a little bit inland, it’s the freshwater flooding. This appears to be freshwater flooding from the more than a dozen inches of rain, more than 20 inches of rain in some spots.

He said it’s going to take time before roads are drivable again.

“This [water] is going to be here for a while. It’s a foot deep in some spots at its deepest point, so that’s a lot of water over a large area. It’s as far as my eye can see in that direction down that road. It’s going to be a long haul,” Forhetz said.

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