Montana
Montana Red Cross volunteers mobilize for hurricane relief
Hurricane Helene barreled through the East Coast, devastating areas in its path. Despite being over 2000 miles away, Montana stepped up to help by deploying Red Cross Volunteers to provide disaster relief on the ground in affected states.
Boulder resident Heather Sappington left for North Carolina a few weeks ago, lending a helping hand in the time of crisis.
Montana Red Cross volunteers mobilize for hurricane relief
She said, “They didn’t have enough hands. It was awful. If nobody does it then nobody does it, and I don’t like feeling helpless. So, there’s always something you can do.”
Heather is no stranger to emergency response efforts being a volunteer fire fighter. However, this deployment marks one of her longest trips for volunteering.
She described not seeing much damage at first when landing in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I thought that maybe it’s not going to be that bad. Then we drove up to Asheville, North Carolina, me and one of the other Red Cross members, and it was completely different. Like the town was gone. There’s cars flipped upside down and trees everywhere, debris everywhere. You couldn’t tell that there was a town.”
As a shelter supervisor, volunteers like Heather oversaw those who have lost their homes, taking people in and giving them cots, blankets, and food.
With winds up to 140 mph, torrential rain and flooding, and power surges, the devastation was intense.
Matt Ochsner, the Montana Red Cross regional communications director said that hurricane relief will be a long-term response.
“We’ve got five or six volunteers, Red Cross volunteers from Montana out the door right now, and we expect more to go out the door in the weeks and months to come.”
American Red Cross
Montana’s involvement in Hurricane Helene’s relief efforts goes beyond volunteers. A call for donations are crucial during this time.
“You can imagine how many blood drives have been cancelled in the Southeast,” Matt explained. “Every two seconds, somebody in this country needs that blood. So we’re asking people in the unaffected areas like Montana to raise your hand, come out and donate lifesaving blood.”
American Red Cross
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
Brian Miller won the Democratic primary Tuesday for the U.S. House seat in Montana’s eastern district.
The Associated Press called the race for Miller, an attorney in Helena, who fended off a challenge from state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, a longtime legislator from Box Elder, and Sam Lux, a farrier from Great Falls.
In the Republican and rural eastern district, any Democrat will be an underdog, and Miller will face off against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who was unopposed Tuesday.
Libertarian Patrick McCracken is also running.
In the primary, Miller took 58% of the vote. Lux took 27% and Windy Boy took 16%, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s website.
In April, Windy Boy paused his campaign amid “serious sexual abuse” allegations raised by the Montana Democratic Party — but Windy Boy restarted his campaign and later called the allegations “political attacks.”
Miller is representing the victim of the alleged abuse and her mother, although he said he didn’t take on the role until after Windy Boy initially suspended his campaign.
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