Immediately following ROWW’s extensive deployment to Asheville, NC for Hurricane Helene, our team pivoted and moved operations down to the Tampa area in light of the storm approaching. We were able to partner with Global Empowerment Mission and get a Search and Rescue (SAR) team on the ground the night of when Milton was to make landfall, ready for real-time water rescue missions. Luckily, Milton did not turn out to be as powerful as reports predicted. We made multiple passes by watercraft in our area and thankfully did not see much action or have many requests.
ROWW also followed up after the hurricane hit land with a group of volunteers to assist residents in Englewood, FL with flooding mitigation. We partnered with Venice, FL Lowe’s Store #1683 for ALL of our product and material needs. One of the many people we were able to help was an older man that lost his wife about a year and half earlier and his name was Lloyd. His kind neighbors had informed us that he might be needing our services. He lived in a small home where he and his wife had lived-in for over 30 years. When we knocked on his door it was very clear he was in need of help, he had been affected by both Hurricane Helene & Milton. When we walked in to inspect the home everything was still wet and nothing had been removed. He lost everything! We did find his wife’s ashes and were able to save them, a very special moment. The flooding that came through his house was up to 4 feet high (we saw in the area up to 7+ feet of water surge), we knew we needed to help him. Since some of Lloyd’s medication needed to be refrigerated we knew we needed to get him a new one. We went to Lowe’s and were able to talk with the GM Brian Smith and his managers about Lloyd’s situation and we got him a replacement fridge.
We worked with a very large and eager team of volunteers and performed muck and guts on 9 different homes helping residents save thousands of dollars and countless hours doing it themselves! Our amazing donors from all over the world stepped up big time and donated to this deployment and helped us keep boots on the ground and much needed supplies to our team and those we helped!