Join Us in Helping Hurricane Helene Survivors

On Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Devastation from the storm quickly spread throughout the Gulf and southern Appalachia, where severe and sudden flooding occurred, resulting in hundreds of deaths. This storm reached unprecedented levels in Appalachia, causing unimaginable damage to areas hundreds of miles inland and well above sea level –– areas perceived largely safe from hurricanes. One week after Hurricane Helene made landfall, tens of thousands of people remain without running water and nearly one million are without power. Survivors of this historic storm urgently need our help.

The Rural Student Alliance at Yale, Yale Student Environmental Coalition, and Yale College Democrats are working together to raise awareness about this tragedy in our community and raise funds for those directly affected by Hurricane Helene. We believe that the Yale community has the resources to provide a lot of assistance to the rescue and recovery efforts in Appalachia and the Gulf; however, we are not currently seeing any movement within Yale to support Hurricane Helene's victims. We hope to fix that, and we hope you will join us by donating to this fundraiser.

The money from this initiative will be split among three non-profits in North Carolina and Florida: Feeding Florida, Equal Plates Project, and BeLoved Asheville. These organizations were specifically suggested by members of our community either directly affected by Hurricane Helene or from the affected areas. Funds will be split evenly across these three organizations.

If you have any questions about this fundraiser, the organizations running it, or anything else related to our activities, please feel free to reach out. If you would like to learn more about Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, you can find information here, here, and here.