How to help Hurricane Helene survivors in Appalachia

As floodwaters receded Monday in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, neighbors who were spared Hurricane Helene’s wrath are asking: How can we help?

The answer right now is: Stay where you’re at and channel your aid through established organizations (details below).

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, or TEMA, has been reminding residents on social media that lifesaving efforts are still ongoing — and that those take priority.

Nashville Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD, seconded TEMA’s sentiment, posting: “This is not a message of we don’t want your help. This is a message of we need you to wait to send your help. They are still doing search and recovery, intake centers for volunteers and donations have not been established. They will welcome us, once it is safe to do so.”

What to do in the meantime

Though you’re not cleared to help chainsaw felled trees just yet, there are opportunities to contribute financially. These funds can go in the immediate toward food and clean water needs in the hardest hits communities and, eventually, to cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

• East Tennessee Foundation’s Neighbor to Neighbor Disaster Relief Fund: This is an East Tennessee-specific fundraising effort where the money will be distributed to local nonprofits and agencies to “rescue and recover their own communities amid devastating impacts from Hurricane Helene.” The fund, now in its 14th year, began after the region experienced devastating storms in 2011, and has since been used in other community disasters, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
• North Carolina Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund: This North Carolina equivalent, which began after Hurricane Fran in 1996, is encouraging donations go instead to groups immediately addressing the health and safety of storm survivors in the state, but has set up this fund for the long-term needs during the recovery process. It says this fund will “provide grants to charitable organizations on the ground in affected communities.”
• North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund: This fund is managed directly by the state government and supports emergency response efforts.
• GoFundMe’s Hurricane Helene Relief: The popular crowdfunding site has had many impacted individuals begin pages on its platform in the days since the storm. This linked landing page gathers all the verified, Helene-related fundraising efforts for users to select by individual story or region where they’d most like to give. As of Monday morning, there were already around 1,000 fundraisers for individual efforts.
• American Red Cross: Red Cross is accepting monetary donations to support its efforts in storm-damaged areas. You can also find where to donate blood on the Red Cross blood donation landing page. Ahead of Hurricane Helene making landfall, other blood donation groups like Blood Assurance noted the perennial need for O-negative and platelet donations, especially prevalent in disaster relief.
• Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is accepting financial contributions to support its Hurricane Helene recovery effort. It is currently based out of Johnson City, with feeding sites set up in Tennessee and more to come in North Carolina.
• United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Disaster Relief Fund: Local United Way is asking for donations, as it works with the Buncombe County Government and its Emergency Operations Center to “ensure that NC 211 has the most up-to-date resources for callers seeking information and assistance.” The dollars raised will be distributed through local and regional foundations for the longterm recovery and rebuilding efforts.
• United Way of East Tennessee Highlands Disaster Relief Fund: Similarly, this fund for Northeast Tennessee is being collected and will be distributed by the local United Way chapter.
• Baptists on Mission: The North Carolina-based nonprofit is tied to the Baptist State Convention of NC. Of its 19 declared missions, disaster recovery and relief are two. The organization is accepting donations to support its efforts, but is also setting up recovery sites and mobilizing volunteers for those near the most impacted parts of North Carolina.

This is a developing story that was last updated at 1:55 p.m. Monday.