Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton’s Impact

"Gray shirts" help clean debris from the roads. 

Team Rubicon positively impacts the lives of the victims of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in the Southern United States.

Changing the Lives of Many

This year, hurricanes are devasting the lives of thousands of people in the United States. Specifically, Hurricanes Helene and Milton brought intense winds and rain to the South which caused unprecedented damage. Trees fell, floods blocked roads, and downed power lines crisscrossed the streets. Countless people were impacted: families lost their homes, individuals struggled to drive to work, and there have been challenges to reach food.

However, despite the wreckage, there are hundreds of people helping these communities, open to lending a hand to get others back on their feet. Through this, they have been able to leave their mark on those who need help. One organization that has been helping with the devastating effects of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene is Team Rubicon.

Team Rubicon

After speaking with the operations associate for Georgia, Adam Gardner, the incredible impact that the team has in helping families and homeowners get back on their feet following a natural disaster was discovered. Gardner explained, “Team Rubicon is a veteran-led non-profit humanitarian organization,” and they primarily focus on helping, “homeowners in need after a disaster”. Their volunteers, or “gray shirts” as they call them, are 18 years and older. They go into areas that need help to aid in multiple ways such as clearing roads, removing trees from yards, or putting tarps on roofs.

Recently, Team Rubicon has been helping devastated communities after the hurricanes in multiple ways, primarily focusing on clearing roads.

Volunteers help to rebuild destroyed roofs.

Planning a Mission to Help

There is a lot of work that goes into preparing volunteers to send them to the areas in need. Team Rubicon plans these outreaches by using tools such as Crisis Cleanup, which helps make a map of areas in need, and communicating with local governments and their emergency managers. As needs change, the team needs to learn to adjust and focus on helping as many people, as much as they can. Gardner described how, “each disaster varies,” but for these recent missions, “they started off with 30 volunteers for 30 days.”  Volunteers not only help clear roads, but they inspire others and give hope to devastated families.