#it's about to be hurricane season

[sugarlesswriting]

Just remembered how scientist are wondering if they should create a category 6 hurricane and I just want to say please don't ✨❤️✨

[polin-erospsyche]

So they really did dance on the day of Whistledown’s demise. She died away along with all the fears and the doubts. She was no longer necessary. She faded away to let Penelope Bridgerton shine, to allow for Colin and Penelope bask in the light of their love for each other, and they danced to celebrate all of it

[reasonsforhope]

The loss of life and impact on the communities in Helene’s path is unfathomable — and both the immediate and long-term needs are vast. 

If you’re reading this, it’s likely because you want to help and care about making a difference for those who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Helene.

You’re in the right place. When we see tragedy like this happen in the news, it’s important to not tune it out. Instead, pay attention and truly feel the heartbreak of it — t​​hen, look for and be inspired by the people stepping in to help, and use that energy to make a difference ourselves.

Looking for the helpers

Instead of turning away from tragic events like the devastation from Hurricane Helene — we look closer for people stepping in using what they have, where they are, to make a difference for others.

Inspired by Mister Rogers’ famous quote, we call them the “helpers,” — and they’re usually found wherever there’s bad news in the world. Hurricane Helene is no different. Here are some people, businesses, and organizations helping right now:

Chef José Andrés and ​World Central Kitchen teams are serving thousands of meals to communities in need — from Mexico, and the Big Bend of Florida, and into Appalachia.

Volunteer pilots with the Port City Aviators Flying Club are flying supplies to storm victims in western North Carolina.

The national Disaster Distress Helpline is providing free multilingual crisis counseling to those in need.

Southern Smoke Foundation, an organization that supports food & beverage workers in crisis, is providing financial support for groceries, medical bills, lost wages, and more.

Volunteers with veteran-led disaster response organization Team Rubicon are on the ground in Greenwood, South Carolina clearing roads of trees and debris.

A local library branch in Asheville, North Carolina served as a hub for community members in need of internet service.

Workers at Waffle House were “unlikely heroes” providing food to people in need.

A local Fox News correspondent stopped his live broadcast to help rescue a woman trapped in her car in rising floodwaters.

Emergency response teams rescued more than 50 staff, patients, and caregivers from the roof of a hospital in Erwin, Tennessee.

The SPCA of Brevard rescued 20 animals from Hurricane Helene’s path — and it’s now helping them get adopted.

‍

How to make a difference

After we’ve allowed ourselves to feel the weight of the pain and heartbreak associated with bad news, and look for hope and helpers in the midst of it — we always have the opportunity to join in and make a difference, too. 

Here are some ways to help — whether you’re local or far away:

Donate to national organizations 

Here are just a few large-scale organizations that have helpers on the ground in the region.

American Red Cross

World Central Kitchen

Feeding America

United Way

Salvation Army

CARE

Donate to local organizations

Local organizations, recovery funds, and mutual aid groups have been deployed across the states impacted by Helene. Find donation links and updates below:

All States:

GoFundMe Hub for Hurricane Helene Relief

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Southeast Climate & Energy Network

Convoy of Hope

Appalachia Funders Network

Americares

Organizing Resilience

The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster

Tennessee:

East Tennessee Foundation

First Aid Collective Knoxville

RISE Erwin

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee

North Carolina:

North Carolina Community Foundation

Hearts With Hands

Manna Foodbank

BeLoved Asheville

Foothills Food Hub

Haywood Christian Ministry

Samaritan’s Purse

Forsyth Humane Society

Hope Mill

‍

Volunteer locally

Organizations in the affected area are seeking volunteers to help distribute resources and support crucial aid efforts. While many of us are not local to the region, those who are nearby are encouraged to join in a myriad of volunteer opportunities.

(Note: If you aren't in the area, the best way you can help is by supporting local efforts with a donation. Keeping roads clear for rescue crews and local relief agents is vital in maintaining safety in these already devastated regions).

For local volunteers, check out:

World Central Kitchen

Operation BBQ Relief

Marco Patriots

Operation Airdrop

Baptists on Mission

‍

Contact your elected officials and ask them to take climate action

Climate scientists agree, the intensity and extent of the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene was made worse by climate change. 

While we can’t go back in time and burn less fossil fuels — we can make a difference now to secure a safer future and prevent future climate disasters. 

In addition to talking about how this disaster is connected to climate change in our own conversations and holding media outlets accountable for how they talk about climate change — this is a great time to tell your elected officials that you want them to take meaningful climate action.

We’re making incredible progress in the U.S. and globally in reducing emissions, but we need to work even faster — and incorporate climate mitigation efforts into our plans — to limit the most severe impacts of global warming.

[hippydippydruid]

Oh yeah what the heck is going on with Milton. Where is my boy.

[reality-detective]

JUST IN: Beryl has become a CATEGORY 5 hurricane. There is no precedent for a Category 5 to occur this early in the Atlantic.

The previous record was Emily on July 17, 2005.

Is HAARP fueling the fire? 🤔

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

Right Wing Politicians: and you want to know why we keep having these huge storms and devastating hurricanes?! why don't you go ask you favewit wittle democwats about their hurricane making machine? hmmm?

Me, my eye twitching in rage: ...so, you admit that modern, man made technologies can and do have an impact on extreme weather conditions that can cause long lasting damages and harm to our environments and communities?

RWP: what? no I never said any such thing

[odinsblog]

This was the Howard Franklin Bridge at 3pm today

Here’s what it normally looks like

This is about 5 minutes away from my house. I can literally see the bridge from my porch and bedrooms

ofc I’m without power rn but I got plenty of food, water and liquor

And I’m nowhere near the expected landfall (hundreds of miles away), but that storm surge still bouta be real af 🙃

Fortunately I’m several stories up

[softerpixels]

i genuinely feel a little insane watching my home state succumb to climate crisis over my nearly 30 years of existence just to watch conspiracy theorists call it a deep-state manufactured disaster to keep red states from voting

[verified-villain-fxcker]

I’m never gonna be able to get through another hurricane season without thinking about Louis Lestat banging like a pair of window shutters in the eye of the storm down in the quarter somewhere.

[hyper-coasters]

Getting hit with a cat 4 tonight. Everyone stay safe, in and outside of the Tampa area. Taking myself and the animals to a shelter. Everyone stay prepared 🫶 Have lived in FL my whole life and have never been so scared for a storm.

[brattylikestoeat]

Brattyyyyy. Something's up with you. You in the mental space to share? You doing ok? Are you safe? These men you're talkin about got me nervous for you

Let me vent for a second.

Donald is walking on the thinnest of ice at the moment. I understand we both can be busy but it’s no reason for us to be in the same city for two weeks and I not get flowers. And what makes it worst is he asking for my schedule then doing nothing with it.

Ted is an angel but he wants to live on my skin and sometimes (a lot of times) I just want to be alone. I like being by myself. If I insist on alone time he thinks I’m angry with him.

Quay (he comes and goes) got outta jail and immediately jumped to harassing me. This is after he said he would get his sister to drag me. Do you like me or not? One day you are apologizing the next you threatening my life. 

Hood nigga at work did some foul shit. We literally went from besties to enemies in the span of 3 days. I don’t care that he quit, you gotta do what you gotta do but the way he went about it was crazy. The same week the hurricane blew thru Atlanta he just stopped showing up to work. We thought something was wrong with the nigga. Me and a few others text him and he left all of us on read. Then by Monday this nigga had blocked us all no explanation. And I was just like wtf?

TG saw me once in passing and now is back to texting me excessively. And it swings back and forth from I miss you, to you ruined my life. As much as I wanna take credit for ruining his life, he was a coke head before and after me lol.

Saturday night I went to a bar that Ted was bouncing at. Saw this guy harassing a girl and I spit on. I apologized to Ted and his coworker cuz they had to step between me and a man. Which I didn’t like hence the post. I’m not sorry for spitting on him because I felt like he deserved it but definitely wrong place and time.

This plug is definitely annoying me. Once he showed me his dick it was no longer just business. He trying to clean it up and I’m not interested. I don’t wanna buy from you no more, I don’t wanna kick it with you at functions no more. My money was always good and consistent, so he fucked up.

That’s all I can think at the moment. 

[flower-blossoms654]

Me, when people dehumanize all southerners and southern adjacent people. Me, when people decide that all people in one area must be bad although there are always minorities and allies in those areas as well. Me, when people think everyone in a red state thinks a certain way even though we know for a fact that gerrymandering has altered districts and how they appear to have voted. Me, when even if this wasn’t true, people still think that everyone there should DIE.

There are so many things that factor into why someone hasn’t evacuated. Let’s fucking stop calling people stupid and that they “deserve it” if they stay behind.

This country has poor fucking public transportation. We rely on cars to get EVERYWHERE. This means that when an evacuation is called, everyone is on the road. EVERYONE. It is a nightmare to get out and some people cannot do that long of a drive.

Money also plays a big part in this. Do you have a car? Can you afford gas? A hotel for however long you need to stay before the hurricane + during the hurricane + after? The gas for the return trip? If not driving then can you afford a plane ticket for there and back? Let’s not pretend the prices are not already ridiculous and we are not already struggling paycheck to paycheck. Add in the fact that hotels and plane tickets are increased to capitalize on people evacuating from the hurricane? That shits fucking expensive. (Not to mention there’s food and groceries you have to rebuy.)(And the difficulty to move people increases with the amount of people and if you have children or elderly or anyone disabled.)(I’m not even gonna go into pets, pet transportation, and the limitation of the hotels that allow pets or not when hotels will be fucking fully booked.)

Let’s also not forget that we have a fucking hurricane SEASON. We live in these parts for so long that we are used to a hurricane a year. That can lead to it being underestimated. If you take into account the amount of work, time, energy, and money that goes into evacuating, it’s easy to see why someone used to hurricanes would choose to stay home. Not to mention if we evacuated for every hurricane, it would be fucking impossible to survive that way. “Then why do you live there?” Not everyone has the money to move states. Many people have been in these parts for generations. Let’s move on.

There are college students away from home without family support that are too far to get that support and don’t have the money and resources to do anything but stay on campus. There are people who have taken forever to get a job and are still scheduled for work and can’t evacuate if they wanna keep that job. IT. IS. NOT. SIMPLE. IT. IS. NOT. STUPID. TO. STAY.

I will fight tooth and nail against anyone talking shit about the devastation in the Rocky Mountains. People making shit up about how they voted as if that means that they deserved to see entire towns wiped off the map. As if Appalachia doesn’t have a culture of sticking it to the man. Even if they didn’t, do they deserve to be standing on rooftops waiting for help to arrive while the government turns their head? They were in the mountains, so far inland where they’ve never seen a hurricane. Hurricanes feed off of warm water and that’s why they die when they get inland - why would they believe that they’d get hit by that shit? All the stuff above applies to them but WORSE. Evacuation on mountain roads? Where there are limited ways of getting in and out and you have to go up and down and this way and that and it takes fucking FOREVER? When they had little to no notice??? Come the fuck on. Some of their universities didn’t even close until the hurricane was right on them.

The government has failed EVERYONE. Please keep that in mind.

[zenathezee]

Dear @samreich

Your content is top tier. However, as someone who spent the last few days in the middle of a natural disaster where we unexpectedly lost all utilities and used board games/already downloaded Dropout episodes as a way to deal, please make it easier to navigate your app when offline.

Thanks!

[ratatatastic]

happy anytime the pantrs do something storms greet them

[jaybirdscoffee]

in my feelings about the state of florida

[glazed-with-frost]

Aliens from the Red Spot reveal their existence to humanity shortly after Hurricane Milton passes through

But they’re as pretentious about their native weather conditions as humans are and bully us for not being able to weather 425+ mph winds