Send money, and nothing else

No travelogue today; my heart is not in it, and I want to use my limited time to say something more important. I'll get back to that soon enough, but today I want to talk about Helene, whose absolute devastation is still being revealed to the nation. In particular I want to talk about how to help, because that's what most people are driven to do, and, more importantly, how not to help.

The title of today's post is also the TL;DR -- if you want to help effectively, send money (more on that in a moment) and not goods such as food, water, clothing, or other supplies, and, most of all, not yourself. I speak from experience, having spent a dozen years as a disaster relief volunteer who responded to dozens of major disasters, in some cases for months at a time. Much of that experience is documented right here in the archives of this blog.

Setting up sat comms in St. Thomas after Irma and Maria struck.

I'm motivated to post today because I'm starting to see social media posts wherein boaters and RVers are talking about organizing aid flotillas or convoys, and also the inevitable announcements about "collecting clothes|blankets|generators|canned goods" for the stricken areas. As someone who has seen firsthand how these unsolicited donations divert trained personnel from more urgent priorities, and then mostly end up not actually going to the impacted population, I implore you: please don't.

I've written about this before, after other major disasters, notably here and, before that, here. In those essays, which I will not repeat here, I linked several good articles from major media outlets about why unsolicited donations and untrained volunteers generally hinder rather than help. What I will reiterate here is that I have seen it first-hand: mountains of donated goods piling up in warehouses, or, worse, parking lots, because there are no logistics on the ground to deal with them or connect them to any kind of need.

The cost and logistics to transport unrequested donated goods into a disaster area and distribute them are staggering. Likewise, spontaneous volunteers from out-of-region without specific, safe, disaster relief training, and identification to pass checkpoints, are at a minimum in the way, if they do not become an outright burden, themselves needing to be housed, fed, and cared for when injured. Yes, all relief agencies have a way to deal with these folks, but that's out of necessity, not intent.

Helene is a major disaster, which will rival or exceed some of the notable major disasters before it, such as Katrina. You've already seen the death toll climb past 50, it will likely be treble that by the time all are accounted for. Infrastructure has been wiped out, at great financial cost, but more importantly, with a disruption to daily life that will last months if not years. Lives have been permanently altered. A long-winded way to say that I expect this event to empty the nation's disaster coffers.

If you are serious in your intent to help, please donate to the relief agency of your choice. I favor the American Red Cross, who are the nation's officially designated disaster relief agency, but there are many other good relief organizations who will be on the ground in the affected areas. I would just caution you to avoid clicking donation links from random social media accounts, because disasters like this bring scammers out in force. Go directly to the agency's web site or local chapter.

Our hearts are breaking for NC and the other affected areas. After a dozen years working shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other relief workers, it's hard for us to sit here and watch it unfold from afar. But we take comfort knowing our colleagues are already on the ground, getting the job done.