South Dakotans making Hurricane Helene relief efforts

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Communities are still reeling from Hurricane Helene.

Some remain isolated as thousands are without power while deaths continue to rise, tragically passing 200 deaths this week.

FEMA and government officials are on the ground in some of the hardest hit areas helping to coordinate relief efforts.

The agency said that more than $45 million in funding is being made available to storm survivors, but with widespread damage, many feel more help will be needed.

People helping people is not something too uncommon in the upper Midwest, even to the point of helping others across the country.

Sanaa Abourezk is cooking for a cause this weekend. On what is usually her busiest day, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., all of the proceeds from her lunch benefit will go to supporting areas impacted by Helene.

“When we do fundraising, it’s busier which is great because we want to raise as much money as we can. As you see, it’s devastating what’s happening in the South. For me, when people are coming for the fundraiser, I don’t want to make any profit,” Abourezk explained. “They’re coming from the goodness of their heart to help other human beings. The last thing I want to do is take a percentage. Come hungry, but be very generous.”

This isn’t the first time she has used her restaurant to raise funds. Sanaa has been working through World Central Kitchen and in the local community since the early days of her restaurant.

“You know, Katrina happened and we did fundraising. It was very successful. People were more than generous and since then we do, unfortunately, we do almost a couple times a year with all the hurricanes and disasters we’re having,” Abourezk said.

World Central Kitchen sends volunteer cooks to bring hot meals to people in need and the money they receive goes towards buying ingredients from local farmers. The money from Sanaa’s fundraiser will be sent out on Monday.

Elsewhere in the state, Bubba Startz is using his connections and platform from his podcast work to start bringing supplies to the front lines. He held a supply drive on Thursday and he and a few others are making their way down south.

“I’ve always been an organizer of people. We are now just taking that one step further and activating these people to do what they are best at. It’s important that we go take care of these people. We can’t sit out here and expect someone else to do it,” Startz explained.

Startz and his Podcast group, The Scene Projects, had previously taken water bottles to Sturgis during the 2024 rally and the idea to bring supplies and listen to impacted residents came out of that recent experience.

“That kind of led me to, ‘Well if we can do that, we’re capable of so much more than that.’ On my drive back home from the Black Hills I got the idea, obviously seeing the utter devastation taking place in Tennessee and North Carolina, it was on my heart to get down there and to help,” Startz said.

Some of the supplies being taken down to Tennessee are non-perishable food, water, etc. They hope to be in communication with those in need so that they can make sure they’re only bringing what’s necessary and not an excess of what is not needed.

“We’re not building this just for one trip. This was a three-to-six-month operation from the start,” Startz said.

Bubba and Sanaa are just two of many examples of South Dakotans doing what they can to help others in their time of need.

If you ask them, it’s not about themselves, but doing the work and helping others like they have been helped in their own times of need.

“South Dakotans, it seems like we live through a nasty blizzard or flooding season or severe drought or something every year and I say hard times make hard people and hard people make strong communities,” Startz said.

“If we don’t take care of each other as a human being, we are doomed to be gone. I believe in passing forward. Someone was very kind to me when I came to America and now I’m trying to help my fellow American,” Abourezk said.

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