AmeriCorps Members on the Frontline in Florida Aid Hurricane Recovery Efforts on the Gulf Coast
CEO Smith visits AmeriCorps members and Community members on the ground
TAMPA, Fla. — Over the weekend, AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith visited Tampa, Sarasota, and other parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where AmeriCorps members are deployed in response to the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Smith met with AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps Disaster Response Teams and community members who were impacted by the storms and received services from AmeriCorps.
Currently, 183 AmeriCorps members and program staff are deployed to Florida to address the destruction brought on by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. AmeriCorps NCCC members are assisting with sheltering, mucking and gutting, debris removal and survivor assistance through partnerships including the American Red Cross, FEMA and Hernando County Emergency Management. At the request of the state, and specifically in response to Hurricane Helene, AmeriCorps was tasked with a FEMA mission assignment and set up a full incident command team to bring in crews from the Florida Conservation Corps, Southwest Conservation Corps, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, American Youthworks and California Conservation Corps.
CEO Smith sat down with 12 of the AmeriCorps members serving in the AmeriCorps NCCC Traditional and AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps programs, who are actively engaged in critical recovery efforts in Florida – some since early October. Teams partnering with the American Red Cross and Hernando County Emergency Management are assisting shelter operations, loading supplies from warehouses onto trucks and providing essentials like food in severely impacted neighborhoods. AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps teams are canvassing neighborhoods to connect survivors with assistance. Two AmeriCorps NCCC alumni, now employees of FEMA and the American Red Cross, also participated in the roundtable and underscored the capacity NCCC teams are adding to disaster operations.
“I am so proud of the way AmeriCorps members, programs, and staff have stepped up for Florida communities,” said Michael D. Smith, CEO, AmeriCorps. “We visited with people whose homes were severely impacted, whose lives were interrupted. These storms have had devastating impacts on houses, neighborhoods, infrastructure and schools. AmeriCorps members stood ready to answer the call, and since they’ve been deployed, they have supported critical response efforts like mucking and gutting, debris removal, shelter coordination and resource distribution. This work doesn’t just impact people’s property but strengthens people’s spirits – it's good to know that people have your back.”
As part of the visit, Smith met with two homeowners whose properties had been affected by the storms. These residents’ properties were severely damaged, and they lacked access to the resources that would be required to remove debris and make the property safe. AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team members removed sand that had washed into one of their yards, an environmental hazard, and mucked and gutted the inside of the other’s home.
“These working conditions were not easy,” said Ramona, a Florida homeowner whose home was worked on from the inside out by AmeriCorps members. “The weather was very warm, the sand they were helping to remove from my yard was very heavy. The house had so much drywall to be removed. Yet, they worked long days always cheerful and with such attention to detail. The whole team clearly took a great pride in their work. My yard looked amazing when they were finished, even better than it looked before I was hit by Helene and Milton!”
These deployments to support efforts in Florida are part of a larger national response to the hurricanes that affected millions of Americans this summer. More than 480 AmeriCorps members, as well as program staff, have responded to serve with a variety of partners to support recovery operations in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, and Washington, DC. There are nearly 300 AmeriCorps members still on the ground across these six states helping with active recovery.
AmeriCorps urges anyone who wants to get involved to seek volunteer opportunities following the disaster. For those interested in national service opportunities in emergency management visit AmeriCorps.Gov/Serve. To learn more about AmeriCorps disaster response visit AmeriCorps.Gov/DisasterServices.