‘We fly and bring people clean water’ | East Tennessee organization providing clean water for Hurricane Beryl survivors

SNEEDVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Hurricane Beryl has been wreaking havoc on the Caribbean Islands. Strong winds and heavy storms destroyed towns and made life very hard on residents of the affected areas.

Here in East Tennessee, a local nonprofit is helping those affected people by supplying them with water purifiers.

“Clean water is a non negotiable, you have to have it,” Joe Hurston, the president and founder of Air Mobile Ministries said. “After a few days you’re sick and dying. We know this. Hurricanes destroy whatever source of water you had, it is going to be damaged.”

Air Mobile Ministries has been providing water purifiers to people affected by national and man-made disasters since 1978. They reach those people by a small plane, piloted by Hurston and his co-pilot, loaded up with all the water purifiers they can haul.

“When we land, we’re going to have 10 water purifiers on board. Any of which a single unit can give 1000 people a day drinking water,” Hurston said. “We’re loaded for bear. We can bring a lot of people clean water right now and that’s that’s our mission.”

Hurston planned to fly down to Puerto Rico first so he can help the area that was hit by the storm. After that, he plans to stop at other islands to continue dropping off his purifiers to different locations.

“It’s going to be a 1000 mile flight from Titusville to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. We’ll land, we’ll fuel. We’ll make our contacts and then we’ll we’ll go to the next phase of the mission from there,” Hurston said.

Hurston said the lord inspired him to help those in need. He does not know how long his journey will be, but he knows it won’t end until he helps all those that can.

“I’ve been doing this kind of work for 45 years, so it’s just living the life and you know, doing what we do. We fly and bring people clean water,” Hurston said.

To follow along with Hurston’s relief mission, you can check out his blog.

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