It’s been a rough week for millions of people in Florida who have been impacted by Hurricane Milton.
A Santa Barbara based relief agency has been on the front lines, helping to get medicine, medical supplies and other critical aid to those who need it.
Direct Relief's President and CEO was in Florida as the hurricane hit, to help coordinate aid from the non-profit.
"I think the hurricane was less intense than expected, but in individual pockets where tornadoes hit it was worse than expected, and devastating to those communities," said Thomas Tighe.
He said some of the community clinics they’ve been working with for years are in hard hit communities.
"I talked with the founders of community clinics in Fort Myers and Fort Pierce, and both of their towns had been hit by tornadoes. These are groups that Direct Relief supports on an ongoing basis, and it's been heartbreaking for them," said Tighe.
Direct Relief is known for supplying medicine, and medical supplies to people impacted by disasters or conflicts around the world.
But Tighe says Direct Relief has been involved in U.S. hurricane response efforts for years. The Santa Barbara non-profit pre-positions key supplies in hurricane zones, so community clinics are able to respond instantly during a crisis.
"Hurricanes are basically predictable within a range of months and geographic area," said Tighe. "Where is it likely to happen, and where is help going to be needed?"
"What we found is that people who have to evacuate rapidly, and are managing a chronic condition like asthma, diabetes, or hypertension, if they have to leave and don't have their medications, they can become an acute health crisis in a couple of days," said Tighe.
He said working with clinics in the hurricane zones, they pre-position key medicines in rugged, waterproof boxes to help fill the need created by evacuees without their medications.
Tighe said Direct Relief’s team at its massive warehouse near Santa Barbara Airport is standing by to ship additional supplies to hurricane-impacted areas.
In the last week, Direct Relief has shipped about two tons of medicine, medical supplies, personal hygiene kits, and nutritional supplements to Florida. It’s about $800,000 worth of aid.
On top of that, it’s also supplied grants to help medical clinics in North Carolina dealing with Hurricane Helene, as well as clinics in Florida responding to Hurricane Milton. Direct Relief distributed $350,000 to 14 local agencies.
Tighe said while some people are saying Hurricane Milton didn’t hit the worst case potential for death, and destruction, it still happened on a massive scale, and the need for help is going to be around for a long time.
