Communities in the Shenandoah Valley have come together to donate supplies to those affected by Hurricane Helene. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[volunteer thumping down bundles of supplies]
CAROLYN BRAGG: Yeah, we have to do another palette.
VOLUNTEER: I'll do a palettes run.
Volunteers were busy sorting donations of toiletries and children's coats into boxes when I stopped by the Augusta County Government Center on Wednesday. Carolyn Bragg, who serves on the board of supervisors, was one of them.
BRAGG: You do it in phases – at first you're doing more emergency/rescue needs. You're doing your personal things, your food, your water, and then you move into the recovery/cleanup phase, so we're looking for cleaning products, soaps, brooms, dustpans, squeegees, work gloves. Generators are a huge, huge need. We've been sending a lot of, I think we got about 20 – I could be wrong on that number, but – chainsaws that have gone down … to clear the roads, and to clear around their houses and stuff.
People can leave donations under the tents outside the government center in Verona at any time, day or night. The county has already sent two full semi-trucks down south.
BRAGG: One went to southwest Virginia on Monday, and one is currently en route to Asheville – they may be there by now, but they're en route. They left at six this morning. We're filling this one right now. I believe it's going to North Carolina, but we're going to check and see what the need is in Tennessee. … We supplied a lot of things over the weekend, a lot of supplies last week to the airport, where they were doing the flights out. … They have sent out about 17,000 pounds of goods up through Sunday morning, I believe.
Blue Ridge Aviation told WMRA that now that more roads are open in the areas hit by Helene, they're asking all donations be taken to the government center to be transported by truck.
BRAGG: We have had a wonderful response from our local trucking companies. … Blue Ridge Community College sent the first truck. The second one, Houff is driving that today. This one is from Meade Trucking. … Donald Smith, our Augusta County sheriff, is in touch with the sheriff's departments in other localities, or the fire departments and rescue departments, and they're giving us direction and making sure the path is clear for us to get the supplies that are donated to the people that need it.
The employees at Kenco Logistics, a warehouse in Lyndhurst, got together a hatchback-load of supplies.
DEBBIE WOOD: We just took up all these donations to help the people that are really suffering, and even some of the people that just need a little bit of extra help. … This is amazing. This just – [pats chest] this just touches my heart.
Debbie Wood is a logistics operator for exports at the company.
WOOD: Ask me what we didn't bring! … We brought the water and the toilet paper and the paper towels. We had somebody that brought a whole box of writing utensils and stuff and games for the kids. We have, I think, like 12 different kinds of Barbie dolls, toys. We brought some warm clothing like socks or gloves, stuff like that. And we brought some cleaning supplies, diapers. … We brought some pet food.
Bragg said some donors have talked about their daughters, cousins, and aunts living in the path of Helene. Even more just want to help.
BRAGG: We've had just a grocery bag handed to us, and we've had truckloads. … Could not be prouder of the people in Augusta County, truly could not be prouder.
Other communities in the valley are lending a hand, too. The all-volunteer Luray Fire Department sent a heavy squad truck to the small town of Butler, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border. The Elk Mills Poga Volunteer Fire Department there shared a video on Facebook of their entire fire station and a truck being washed away by floodwaters. The Virginia-based company Apparatus Solutions sent out a call for equipment donations, like this heavy squad.
TIM LANSBERRY: It doesn't have any water on it. It's a rolling tool box.
Tim Lansberry is the treasurer of the Luray Fire Department.
LANSBERRY: Most of all it has your extrication equipment, commonly referred to as the jaws of life. We stripped most of the equipment off of that to put on our truck, our new truck. So when we made the post that the truck was being donated, there were multiple fire departments, including all the rescue agencies, fire and rescue agencies within our county, donating equipment to put back on it.
Donated equipment included emergency medical bags, fire extinguishers, hand tools, and backboards from at least eight other fire and rescue squads around the region.
Augusta County will be collecting donations through this weekend, at least.
