Friend Ships planning delivery of supplies to Florida and North Carolina

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) -From western North Carolina to central Florida tens of millions of Americans have seen the full force of mother nature.  Hurricanes Helene and Milton left behind destruction that will take years from which to recover.

A locally based charity is ready to help those struggling get back to some type of normalcy and people can help.

The international relief organization Friend Ships will be making trips to both North Carolina and Florida to provide help to those recovering from hurricanes Helene and Milton.  

Items will be flown to North Carolina and a disaster assistance team will go to Florida to deliver supplies and help however they can.

Friend Ships’ Murray Douglas says they all have hearts for service.

“We’re sending an advance team in this weekend. With the information they’ll be bringing out, we’ll be able to pinpoint a little bit more accurately where we’re going, what the actual needs are in that area are going to be,” he said.

They were packaging donated loaves of bread for distribution locally and to hurricane victims. They say it’s fine to continue to bring supplies to their headquarters at Port Mercy in Lake Charles because they plan to make several trips to hurricane-stricken areas.

“Yes, we still need supplies. Our team will be going as soon as possible. Just a couple of things we’re waiting on before we load up and head toward Florida. But we still have a team here processing donations that we can get to both Florida and North Carolina,” he said.

The team will consist of about a dozen Sea Hawks who can help feed people, clean up, distribute commodities. Murray says they can usually do whatever needs to be done.

Friend Ships accepts various supplies from paper goods, ramen soups and hammers and nails to cover roofs. They are taking steam carts to both Florida and North Carolina.    They also use an Amazon wish list to make donating easier.

They also utilize commercial trucking services donated to assist in transportation of goods to those in need.

Friend Ships has permanent volunteers but can always use those who want to help on site locally for short periods of times.

Several other local organizations are accepting donations of essential supplies and funds for the victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.                

Copyright 2024 KPLC. All rights reserved.