COLUMBUS, Ind. — In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a lot of Hoosiers are working to help storm victims to our south.
That includes a group of pilots delivering donations to North Carolina.
At Columbus Municipal Airport, air traffic has had a big boost since Sunday, Sept. 29.
That's when a plea for help with Helene took off right away, bringing a fleet of volunteers to the runway.
"We first saw the Facebook post probably like everyone else on social media," airport director Brian Payne said. "Then, it started getting shared like crazy."
"They were asking for pilots, and so I called 'em up," Evansville pilot Jules Mominee said. "I've got a real simple philosophy: 'When everybody helps everybody, everybody gets ahead.'"
Mominee and his Mooney Ranger are on a mission: get disaster donations into his plane in Indiana and out to those in need in North Carolina.
"It's known for its speed and its fuel efficiency, not so much for hauling a lot of bulk, but it's what I've got," Mominee said. "So whatever we can stick in here: canned soup, vegetables, things like that. I took the co-pilot's seat out because it's just bulky, to make more room to put stuff in and make it easier to load and unload."
Mominee is one of nearly 100 pilots, as of Tuesday afternoon, helping with hurricane relief through the Bartholomew County-based nonprofit Civilian Crisis Response Team.
The team's helped with disasters before, including tornadoes in Kokomo and Kentucky, but a donation drive by air is brand new.
The damage to our south is that bad.
"Because of all the damage to the roads and the infrastructure, there's not even a way to do it by vehicles, or ATVs, or even horses, in some cases," said J.R. Grounds, director of the Civilian Crisis Response Team. "As it stands right now, we have expanded the mission quite a bit. We're actually coordinating drop off locations in multiple states now and flying that stuff into the area that it needs to be distributed."
Planes like Mominee's Mooney Ranger will land in Ashville, then transfer supplies to helicopters for delivery.
Back in Columbus, donation drop-offs at the airport terminal are now constant from the community. And pilots like Mominee are loaded up and ready.
"It's about a two-hour flight for me from here," Mominee said. "It's heartbreaking there, but in the meantime, we're trying to help out."
These pilots are Hoosiers answering one simple question: "How can I help my neighbor?"
"And in this case, our neighbors just happen to be a few states away," Grounds said.
If you'd like to help with donations, you can drop them off at the Columbus Municipal Airport terminal at 4770 Ray Boll Blvd. in Columbus, Indiana.
If you're a pilot and would like to assist with your plane, learn more by going to the Civilian Crisis Response Team's website or Facebook page.
Other ways to help
- You can donate to the American Red Cross. You can donate money to help pay for supplies, but there is also a critical need for blood products. You can give $10 to the Red Cross by texting HELENE to 90999.
- The United Way has also created a special Helene Recovery donation page you can find here.
- Midwest Foodbank is encouraging donations to help provide supplies to people suffering across the southeastern United States.
FEMA has a list of the relief agencies working in all the affected states: