Within a period of a dozen days in September and October 2024, two hurricanes made landfall back-to-back in the southeastern United States. Since then, more than 20,000 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have donated their time to provide relief to thousands of impacted families in the area.
In the process, they have seen miracles, witnessed the power of prayer and experienced joy because of this Christ-centered service.
“This is truly the gospel in action,” said Elder Quinn S. Millington, an Area Seventy in the Church’s North America Southeast Area, who serves as head of the Area Disaster Response Committee.
In a recent Church News podcast, Elder Millington shared his perspective on the Church’s disaster relief efforts after hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Hurricane Helene made landfall late evening on Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Big Bend region of the Florida Panhandle. As a Category 4 hurricane with winds of up to 140 miles per hour, up to 30 inches of rain and a record storm surge from waters piling up along Florida’s west coast, it was the strongest hurricane to ever hit the area and the deadliest to strike the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005. Over 200 people died, multiple news outlets reported.
Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday, Oct. 9, near Sarasota, Florida, as a Category 3 storm. With it came flooding from Jacksonville to the Everglades, widespread power outages affecting more than 3 million people and over 40 tornadoes throughout central and south Florida. Multiple news outlets have reported death tolls from at least 10 to over 20.
In the aftermath of both storms, 21,284 Latter-day Saints rallied to help, ChurchofJesusChrist.org reported. Over a six-week period across five states, they donated 311,265 hours of service and helped 10,348 homes or houses of worship. Ninety-six stakes assisted in-person with relief efforts, and 73 stakes answered over 17,000 disaster hotline calls from hurricane victims.
In an interview, Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt, a General Authority Seventy and counselor in the Church’s North America Southeast Area presidency, said there’s been an “energizing force” in the region as people come together to serve.
“It’s exhausting, physically and emotionally to some degree, but it’s also energizing. … People are being strong,” said Elder Corbitt, who himself spent several days helping relief efforts in Asheville, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.
Tony Paulk, mayor of Douglas, Georgia, praised Latter-day Saint volunteers during a special worship service, ChurchofJesusChrist.org reported.
“You came out to help folks you do not know,” he said. “These yellow shirts arrived and peppered our community. What you carry is hope. What you carry is happiness. You bring the message, ‘We are going to get through this together.’”
Beyond volunteer hours, to date the Church has delivered 38 truckloads of supplies, including chainsaws, tarps, gloves, safety glasses, shovels and other tools for volunteer teams. Supplies also included food, water and cleaning materials for teams to distribute to residents in need.
Additional Church humanitarian projects, in collaboration with established disaster relief organizations, include a $1 million donation to the American Red Cross, prepared meals through Hot Meals USA and Feeding America, ground disaster relief through Team Rubicon, mold removal and sanitation by All Hands and Hearts, emergency medical care through International Medical Corps, and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies through Project HOPE and Catholic Charities USA, as well as support to Save the Children and the Crisis Cleanup hotline.
“I don’t know that I have ever been as grateful as I am today for what I have witnessed and how we can administer relief so quickly and so thoroughly,” Elder Millington told Church News.
He added: “My faith in Jesus Christ is fortified. My hope in humanity is lifted. And I can see what it looks like to ‘let God prevail,’ to ‘think celestial,’ to have a change of heart continually. And I’m reminded once again that we are led today by prophets, seers and revelators.”
‘Prayer works’
Elder Millington said that as head of the Area Disaster Response Committee, his job is to connect the Church’s resources to ecclesiastical lines. In the case of hurricanes Helene and Milton, that looked like working closely with welfare and self-reliance managers, with the region’s director of temporal affairs and with other Area Seventies.
The Area Seventies, in turn, work with their stake presidents, who work with their local Church leaders to organize members in such a way that they’re dispatched to places in need.
“My work is to make sure that we’ve got both sides of this coming together in such a way that we have a meaningful response and that the children of the Lord are served through that effort,” Elder Millington said.
He continued that Hurricane Helene was anticipated well in advance, giving the Church time to prepare. Elder John D. Amos, an Area Seventy, was assigned to speak with local mission presidents about keeping their missionaries safe; and local Church leaders could also estimate where the greatest damage would occur.
Elder Millington said he “cannot say enough good” about local Area Seventies, stake presidents, and welfare and self-reliance managers. Thanks to these groups, “we get a really good picture of what’s happening very, very fast.”
The challenge with two back-to-back hurricanes, however, was that relief efforts for the first storm had barely started before the second storm hit, Elder Millington said.
He called Elder Daniel Amato, another Area Seventy, to talk about storm response logistics. During that conversation, Elder Amato said he would ask local Church members to fast and pray.
As the message to fast and pray spread throughout the area, Hurricane Milton dissipated from a Category 5 to a Category 3 storm, Elder Millington said. “How about that for a miracle? … I know that prayer works. No doubt. Absolutely, prayer works.”
His experience with Elder Amato isn’t the only time Elder Millington has seen prayer’s power in action. He told the story of one man, a bishop, who was volunteering at a work site when he began feeling unwell. The bishop sat out for a while, then went to a different job site. Still feeling unwell, he heeded a prompting to seek medical care and was ultimately treated for a heart attack at a major hospital that had recently recruited an interventional cardiologist.
Elder Millington noted that if the bishop had been home instead of volunteering, he would’ve been further from this hospital and possibly wouldn’t have received specialized care in time.
“We come together in Christ, in faith, offering up our hearts to God in the name of Jesus Christ, asking for guidance. … And again and again and again, we see incredible miracles,” he said.
Elder Millington added that over 20,000 unskilled volunteers uniting so effectively over the course of six weeks is evidence to him that the Lord’s hand is in this work. Perhaps the biggest miracle, he said, is how the community comes together.
That coming together sometimes reaches people who haven’t been to church in a while, prompting them to reenter the fold, Elder Millington continued. As people serve together, the Spirit works in them and hearts are changed, he said.
“You can see very quickly why in 2 Nephi 32, we’re taught that the adversary ‘teacheth not a man to pray.’ He doesn’t want us uniting in Christ for a common good,” Elder Millington said. “And yet, that’s the very thing that begins to happen in these storms.”
The best ways to help
In the weeks after hurricanes Helene and Milton, Elder Millington said another challenge came through well-meaning people sending aid that created more problems than it solved.
For instance, he recalled “truckload after truckload after truckload” of supplies coming to Asheville, North Carolina — but there was nowhere to put them. Fortunately, in that case, someone stepped forward and offered the use of a private warehouse; but the issue of sorting through and distributing all the supplies remains.
Elder Millington said if someone wants to help after a natural disaster, the best thing they can do is pay more fast offerings.
“Those are easier to manage, and the Church has already got these wonderful relationships with all of these NGOs and can help move that money in a very constructive and meaningful way so that these organizations that are already positioned to deliver the relief can effectively deliver the relief,” he said.
His remarks echo those of Melody and Paul Hailstone, JustServe specialists near Atlanta, Georgia, who previously told Church News that the best way people outside of disaster areas can help is by giving funds to reputable organizations.
“Those organizations know exactly what the people who are suffering need, and they can provide targeted items to those who are in need,” Melody Hailstone said.
Paul Hailstone added that in disaster areas, local JustServe specialists are best equipped to coordinate with relief organizations and communicate when those organizations are ready for volunteers.
JustServe is a tool “that allows us to serve [with] organizations across the country and down the street,” he said. “I think that’s just beautiful. Disasters like this highlight the fact that there are so many ways and so many people and so many organizations that are out there doing good and following Christ’s teachings.”
When disaster strikes, Paul Hailstone continued, the spirit of service enters into so many hearts. And often, the best way to act on that spirit is to serve locally.
That tradition then becomes “a long-lasting, ongoing, beautiful aspect of your discipleship,” he said.
