North Texans responding to the calls for help this hurricane season are being put to the test.
Hurricane Milton was the second major storm to devastate the same region within two weeks and local nonprofits are having to be strategic in getting crews where they're needed.
"It has been a wild last three weeks. To have back-to-back storms of this magnitude is practically unheard of, even for the decades of experience that we have,” said John Hall with Dallas-based Texans on Mission.
The groups have been calling this hurricane season a marathon. It started with Hurricane Helene making landfall two weeks ago on Sept. 26 in the Big Bend region of Florida near Tallahassee – then again with Hurricane Milton in the Tampa area on Wednesday night.
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Texans On Mission deployed their second major team in the last two weeks, once again to the southeast, to help with Milton recovery efforts in Florida. That includes several disaster relief units and a mass mobile feeding kitchen.
“We timed the deployment from Texas to ensure teams were on the ground quickly after Hurricane Milton,” said Mickey Lenamon, TXM chief executive officer. “With a storm of this magnitude, we anticipate people will be reeling and we want to begin meeting needs quickly.”
Once the floodwaters recede, they will begin cleaning up flooded homes as quickly as possible.
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The nonprofit still has a large group working on relief efforts in Tennessee and North Carolina from Helene. Just this week, Hall said their crews cleaned three feet of mud out of a basement in Tennessee. Now, they will have to move some leadership from there down to Florida for Milton.
They say this hurricane season has been so relentless across so many areas that they've had to be very strategic with their resources and where to deploy them.
"We talk about having contingencies upon contingencies for situations. We're on plan like X, Y, and Z you know, we're going way down the list here,” said Hall. "Having two storms of this magnitude back-to-back like this is stretching the critical fabric of volunteer networks across the nation. So folks are stepping up, but there's so much need right now. We're literally talking about an area from the very tip of Florida all the way up into Virginia with needs everywhere in between.”
Samaritans Purse also still has a large North Texas presence of volunteers and staff working across the region from Helene.
Many of them were in Florida helping flood victims in the Tampa area from Helene and had to stop their work to be evacuated for Hurricane Milton.
They've since turned back around and are heading back into more areas to begin round two of relief and recovery for this second storm.
"As we think about these storms, we've had an amazing outpouring of support for Helene and I'm sure that will continue on into Milton,” said Shannon Daley of Coppell, who is the field training manager for U.S. Disaster Relief for Samaritan’s Purse. “But the thing to remember is with the storm damage and for those who are hurting, it'll take a long time to recover. We'll be here for a long time and we're committed to be here until the work we can do is done."
The Bedford Fire Department also has two members who were on the ground in North Carolina as part of Texas Task Force 1. That group is pivoting to send more relief into Florida for Milton and will be out there for at least another week.
