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From the American Red Cross, Charlotte chapter:
In 2024, extreme weather mounted an overwhelming toll on people in the North Carolina region and the U.S., who relied on the American Red Cross for relief and care as they faced the country’s second-highest number of billion-dollar disasters ever recorded.
This year’s 24 major climate and weather events — each with losses exceeding $1 billion — are topped only by last year’s record-breaking 28. This past September, Hurricane Helene devastated communities in the Western and Blue Ridge Piedmont areas, causing massive property and infrastructure damage, widespread water and power outages, extensive flooding and loss of life.
To help, more than 2,000 Red Cross volunteers from the region and across the U.S. have been part of teams responding nonstop to provide shelter, food and other assistance to the tens of thousands of people still reeling Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton — all while continuing to care for families still recovering from 2023’s extreme disasters.
“My heart goes out to families and communities all over North Carolina who have been impacted by disasters big and small. I have seen first-hand the heartbreaking devastation that Helene has caused, and I have also seen the inspiring resilience of individuals and communities, along with the HOPE that Red Cross volunteers bring,” said Allison Taylor, Regional CEO, Red Cross North Carolina Region, who is currently deployed to Asheville for Hurricane Helene recovery. “Whether a crisis happens in our backyard or a community across the country, neighbors are counting on us to help ensure they don’t face it alone. Please join us by making a donation of any size or rolling up a sleeve to give blood or platelets.”
This holiday season, visit redcross.org to make a financial donation or an appointment to give blood or platelets. Individuals can also give the gift of time through volunteering.
Need for food, shelter in 2024 nearly triples 5-year national average
Nationally, the scope of disasters increased this year’s demand for necessities like food and emergency lodging — which both exceeded the annual average for the past five years. In fact, this year’s more than 7 million meals and snacks, served by Red Cross volunteers, nearly tripled that average.
Locally, this included the impacts of Hurricane Helene in the American Red Cross North Carolina region. More than 2,000 Red Cross disaster responders provided comfort and care to displaced individuals and families. Additionally, the Red Cross has provided nearly 25,000 overnight shelter stays and nearly 2 million meals and snacks to displaced families and individuals with the help of partners.
Helene victims find hope in community
“We are right along the river.”
Nora Augustine and Silias Heying live in Newland, a community that experienced extreme flooding from Hurricane Helene.
“The rains were pretty heavy starting on Wednesday, and we were going to stay,” Silias said. “But then about Thursday, we saw that the river was rising fast. And so, we managed to get out in time.”
Both went to a hotel to wait out the storm.
“The hotel also lost power, so we were stranded there for a while,” Silias said. “There was a raging river on the road; it was just completely impassable for days. We managed to get back here (home), and we saw that it was pretty destroyed. Our house was still standing, but many others weren’t as lucky.”
The home was elevated but they still experienced two feet of flooding inside their home and lost most of their belongings.
“It’s a mess out here. We knew this area was going to be hit, and we had heard that the college where we work was monitoring the situation. We were thinking about what we would do to manage things on Thursday and Friday, but I really wasn’t expecting damage to this extent,” Silias said.
Nora explained, it’s comforting to see the community and other organizations, like the Red Cross, come show their support and provide relief.
“We’re just trying to clean up. It’s nice to see so many people coming out and driving by and helping each other out. It definitely makes us feel hopeful,” Nora said. “It will definitely be months, maybe many months, before we have any sense of normalcy again.”
Silias agreed and said “it’s comforting to see people are looking out for us. Thank y’all, the Red Cross for helping. It’s still a mess, but thank you so much.”
Home fire campaign
Home fires are this country’s deadliest and most frequent type of disaster.
In 2024, the American Red Cross North Carolina region has responded to almost 1,900 fires, assisting more than 2,500 local individuals and families with immediate aid, support, and recovery. Additionally, the region has provided almost 3,000 individuals and families with more than $2 million in financial assistance.
Seven people in the U.S. lose their lives to a fire in their home every day. The American Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign to reduce home fire-related deaths and injuries. Since its start in 2014, Red Cross has documented 2,212 lives saved, 32% (704) of which are children under 18.
Responding to other humanitarian needs
This year, the Red Cross addressed people’s urgent needs in other ways too:
• Blood Donations: Millions of blood donors nationwide, including in the North Carolina region, helped overcome a significant number of blood drive cancellations due to the country’s severe weather and heat, including over 100 drives as a result of Hurricane Helene. This support was critical because as the nation’s largest blood supplier, the Red Cross helped ensure patients continued accessing lifesaving treatment during major disasters by pre-positioning blood products near areas likely to be impacted Helene — including the Carolinas, Georgia…and also Florida, hit with disaster again just days later with Hurricane Milton.
• Lifesaving Training: With emergency rooms experiencing a spike in heat illness visits amid the country’s extreme temperatures, Red Cross instructors empowered millions of people — including more than 99,600 in the North Carolina region— this year with vital first aid, CPR and AED skills to help them prevent and respond to heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
• Military Families: Through the 24/7, global Hero Care Network, local Red Cross workers supported military members, veterans and their families in the North Carolina region this year through almost 15,000 services, such as connecting deployed service members and loved ones during family emergencies. Nationally, this also included answering thousands of calls from military families affected by this year’s hurricanes — including Helene and Milton — and connecting them with military aid societies to help facilitate recovery assistance.
• International Aid: Red Cross volunteers also helped reconnect several families separated by disaster, conflict or migration around the world through the Restoring Family Links program. With extreme disasters on the rise worldwide, our work was part of our broader American Red Cross International Services, which also included providing millions in aid to support relief efforts led by local Red Cross societies for 16 global climate disasters, such as this year’s drought in Mozambique, flooding in southern Brazil and Cyclone Remal in Bangladesh.
Visit the 2024 NC Region Year-In-Review page — https://www.redcross.org/local/north-carolina/ways-to-donate/local-giving.html — for more information about how the North Carolina region helped people and communities in 2024.