At the height of this year’s hurricane season, Utahns are finding ways to provide relief to devastated communities across the Eastern Seaboard.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and in the days before Hurricane Milton slammed Florida’s west coast, volunteers with Utah roots mobilized to clear debris, muck homes and remove fallen trees. Organizations such as The American Red Cross of Utah and the Helping Hands program from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worked with local relief programs to deploy volunteers to hard-hit communities, particularly in North Carolina and Florida.
“It was overwhelming to see just how much destruction had occurred,” said Cory Watts, a Helping Hands volunteer in Florida. “It literally felt like there were walls on either side of the street just entirely composed of fallen trees, destroyed appliances and other things that had been mucked out of peoples’ homes.”
Cory Watts and his wife, Kaitlyn Watts, were assigned to several cleanup projects in Steinhatchee, Florida. Both attended Utah State University, and Kaitlyn Watts, a Riverton native, graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Utah. The couple moved to Orlando, Florida last year for work and medical school.
“We were super hesitant to participate because we didn’t know what to expect,” Kaitlyn Watts said. They spent 15 hours in one day delivering supplies, driving and working with families to reclaim their homes. The Watts said the experience was a gratifying one.
“I feel like it really united us,” Kaitlyn Watts said. “It was great to see how service after tragedy can bring people together.”
Working side-by-side with the people they served was a particularly notable experience, Cory Watts said. He described how one family called his service group the “army” of help they needed to get back on their feet and emphasized the gratitude of those they helped.
“The mother (and) wife at that particular house said something along the lines of, ‘the government left us stranded, but God remembered us,’” he said.
The Wattses said the experience they gained from helping others in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene was an important part of preparing them for Hurricane Milton.
“Hurricane Milton has been a very strange experience," Cory Watts said. "Having gone to help some other folks clean up after Hurricane Helene, I feel so much closer and more mature in my understanding of just how serious these events can be."
Similar experiences and sentiments came from North Carolina, whose mountain regions have been especially affected by Hurricane Helene.
“The biggest impact was just the ripple effect of devastation in the mountains,” Courtney Schmutz said. She and her husband, Bailey Schmutz, are both BYU alumni living with their three young children in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Their local community helped organize Operation Airlift, a collaborative effort where citizens piloted private airplanes and helicopters to deliver supplies and aid to mountain communities completely inaccessible from blocked roads, Courtney Schmutz said.
“It was amazing. Like a modern day Dunkirk,” Courtney Schmutz said.
The Schmutzes spent one weekend alternating as team leads for Helping Hands relief crews in Lanoir and Boone, North Carolina. In addition to their assigned homes, their crews went knocking door-to-door to find those who needed aid. So many volunteers showed up to help that they ran out of volunteer t-shirts, the couple said.
“So any house we stopped at, I would try and tell them that we were with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Courtney Schmutz said. “I felt very proud to be representing the Savior and truly felt like we were His hands that day.”
The Schmutzes volunteered and worked on various homes for 12 hours each day, ministering to the elderly, single parents and even a Marine veteran. Cleaning up trees and mucking mud out of homes was a major part of the project.
“We were tearing out drywall and insulation that was water logged so that the home frames could dry out and be sanitized before getting the interior walls and floors rebuilt,” Bailey Schmutz said. “It was a great experience being able to help the people there.”
The Schmutzes said the emotional experiences they shared with the people they met taught them valuable lessons.
“We were told that ‘after hearing about so much evil in the world, it was great to see people doing so much good.’ Another lady told us it was the lightest she has felt in days,” Courtney Schmutz said. “It was remarkable to be a part of.”
For BYU students and those in Utah who want to get involved, Heidi Goodsell—operations supervisor for BYU’s YServe—recommends donating through Church philanthropies or volunteering with Lifting Hands International at their donation drives.
YServe has worked with the American Red Cross of Utah organization to organize regular blood drives and other service projects that directly benefit those impacted by natural disasters, even from afar.
"We have a pretty amazing BYU Red Cross program on campus," Benjamin Donner, executive director of the Central and Southern Utah Chapter, said. "(It's) the strongest university program that we have in the entire state of Utah. I'm just beyond grateful."