Samaritan’s Purse continues working on Puerto Rico, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda. Volunteers have completed work from four sites in Florida.
UPDATE: After Category 5 Hurricane Maria decimated Dominica on Sept. 19 and then ravaged Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, Samaritan's Purse responded by sending a disaster assistance response team (DART) and emergency supplies to each island.
Our teams were busy providing Puerto Rico with emergency and shelter supplies.
Working in partnership with local churches on Puerto Rico, we distributed heavy-duty shelter plastic, food, and water filters to families in need. Generators were flown to Puerto Rico to help churches and others—especially those with pressing medical needs—deal without electricity. We also spent weeks conducting mobile medical clinics to help the underserved.
We continue to work on Puerto Rico to help churches and families rebuild and recover.
Hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and other areas desperately need shelter, food, and water.
On Dominica we distributed heavy-duty shelter plastic and hygiene kits. Samaritan's Purse also deployed doctors and nurses to help with the island's medical needs. In addition, we set up four water filtration systems to provide clean water to 11,000 people daily. Long-term recovery work will continue on this island.
---Irma left death and destruction in its wake as the storm churned through the Caribbean. Then it swamped Florida.
"Hurricane Irma leveled islands in the Caribbean and devastated the Florida coast," said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, shortly after the storm hit. "We are taking critically needed supplies to storm survivors and coming alongside affected families. We want to meet their physical needs while showing them the love of Christ. Please pray for all those affected by this horrific storm."
"We are taking critically needed supplies to storm survivors and coming alongside affected families."—Franklin Graham
On hard-hit Barbuda we continue to support residents as they clean up and prepare to rebuild. We are helping families and churches by providing a variety of relief supplies. Based from Antigua our teams commute back and forth to Barbuda, because no one is permitted to spend the night on the island.
Families are receiving heavy-duty plastic sheeting and other essentials.
Samaritan’s Purse started its response to Hurricane Irma on the island of St. Martin, where the storm caused widespread destruction. Our DC-8 cargo plane made multiple trips to that island to deliver relief supplies and disaster assistance response teams.
Through these airlifts—the first of which occurred on Sept. 8— we brought in water purification units, heavy-duty shelter plastic, family hygiene kits, and blankets for thousands of families. We also flew in 30 tons of food to help residents and installed equipment to convert seawater into clean drinking water. Our mission on St. Martin was completed Sept. 29.
On Turks and Caicos we trained local churches to distribute emergency supplies and share the Gospel. Read more about our now completed work.
Many homes were devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
“We want to make a difference here in Jesus’ Name,” Graham said while on the island. “This part of the world is going to need a lot of help, and a lot of work. We’re going to have teams down here for months to come.”
In Florida, our U.S. Disaster Relief staff and volunteers partnered with churches in the hard-hit areas of Key West and Naples. Our volunteers chainsawed trees, removed debris, and tarped roofs. We also performed mud-outs as the waters receded. Additionally, we completed work in Apopka, north of Orlando, and in Ft. Myers. In total, in Florida, we helped 900 homeowners and almost 200 salvations were reported.
LATEST: God's Faithfulness in Key West After Hurricane Irma • Franklin Graham Brings Encouragement to Devastated Barbuda • Volunteers Rush to Aid Florida Homeowners in Irma's Wake • Caribbean Response Expands; Food Delivered to St. Martin • Samaritan's Purse Team on the Ground in St. Martin After Hurricane Irma • Responding in Florida After Hurricane Irma
One of the most powerful Atlantic Ocean storms in recorded history, Irma made its first landfall Sept. 6, lashing the eastern Leeward Islands as a Category 5 storm. Its 185-mph winds decimated Antigua and obliterated 60 to 90 percent of the buildings on the island of Barbuda. Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Barbuda, said the island is "literally rubble."
After ripping up St. Martin, heavy rains and a powerful storm surge lashed Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Throughout the Caribbean, Irma caused more than three dozen deaths according to the latest reports.
On September 10, Florida felt Irma’s fury, including 105-to 130-mph winds, heavy rains, and major storm surge. The storm first hit the U.S. as a Category 4 monster in the Keys and then made a second landfall at Marco Island. Almost the entire state was affected in some way, with the southwestern coast getting the worst of it.
This is the first time that two Category 4 storms (Harvey and Irma) have made U.S. landfall in the same year.
In addition to our response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, we continue to serve Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas in the Name of Jesus Christ through rebuild projects.
