INDIANAPOLIS — The death toll from Hurricane Helene is rising again. At least 202 people have died after the storm made landfall in Florida a week ago, with more than half of those deaths happening in North Carolina.
The floodwaters ravaged the western part of the state and destroyed entire communities.
But that’s not stopping Hoosiers from finding a way to help.
On Thursday, Oct. 3, workers at Midwest Food Bank prepared pallets of food and supplies to be driven down to North Carolina.
"Food and water and cleaning kits and lots of things that are very needed right now,” said Marcie Luhigo, the executive director of Midwest Food Bank. “Midwest Food Bank in Indiana serves 389 agency partners in our state on a regular basis, but when there is a disaster, we always respond. We partner with the Salvation Army, and we have nine other divisions across the United States that we collaborate with.”
So far, Midwest Food Bank has sent 13 truckloads down. This recent one is in partnership with Grace Church and Care Center in Noblesville.
"It's a great way to provide support and be of help to those people that are hurting right now,” Luhigo said.
The need stretches across much of the southeast a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall and cut off towns from lifesaving support.
Plus, many loved ones are still missing as search and rescue missions are underway.
Indiana Task Force 1 is focusing on the western part of North Carolina. They are currently working in McDowell County, just east of Asheville.
Team Leader Battalion Chief Jay Settergren spoke to 13News for the first time since they deployed last week.
“The guys are doing good. The team has been awesome,” Settergren said. “It’s mountainous. We are up in the higher areas of the county. Very rural. Very narrow, thin roads going up to where we are. A lot of these were absolutely just devastated by those mudslides.”
Settergren said the biggest challenge is accessing these devastated communities.
"We spent the last five days basically running chainsaws. We have crews assigned to us. We have to do it ourselves. We get equipment from locals or someone that just wants to help push stuff off the roads so we can get past them, but a lot of it is just done on foot,” Settergren said.
He also said many of the people there share the same “Hoosier spirit” and are constantly offering to help or giving them a place to stay. Settergren said it has given him hope amongst the grim devastation.
“There’s a church that opened their doors so we can have a place to stay and not stay in our tents outside. People are also offering bathrooms and food. Just phenomenal, and it reminds me a lot of being home. They stick together,” Settergren said.
Other Hoosiers like the Civilian Crisis Response Team are also stepping up. This week, they packed up private planes with supplies to fly down to communities in need.
Also, 28 volunteers from the Central Indiana Red Cross packed up four emergency response vehicles and headed south. They joined more than 900 other Red Cross disaster workers to distribute meals, water and critical relief supplies.
Plus, Indiana line workers answered the call. Last week, an estimated 40 line workers from 12 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives left from Clark County to assist near Marietta, Georgia.
13News spoke to one worker helping restore power to hundreds of thousands still in the dark.
"I've never seen anything like this before, the tree damage and the broken poles, it's beyond belief. Also, the property damage to people's homes is quite devastating,” said Charles Beaver, a journeyman lineman at South Central Indiana REMC.
Beaver said for many of them, it’s their families back home that keep them going.
“Whenever we go to situations like this, I just try to do what I would hope that people would be doing for me if I was in their situation,” Beaver said. “It’s a blessing for us to be able to do our job, but it’s also a blessing to have family members back home that pick up whenever we are not able to be there.”
Hoosiers are helping to give a lifeline to those who need it the most.