Although the wind speeds have weakened somewhat, Melissa made landfall with life-threatening winds of 185 miles per hour. It remains a devastating event, menacing Jamaicans with as much as 40 inches of rainfall and storm surge of up to 13 feet in some areas. People have already been killed in Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, and at least four Jamaican hospitals have sustained significant damage – a reason for serious concern, as damage to healthcare infrastructure can have long-lasting impacts in post-disaster settings.

This cataclysmic storm is likely to cause devastation from flooding and landslides across Jamaica, before continuing across eastern Cuba late on Tuesday and hitting the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.

The Immediate Response

In anticipation of the storm’s projected impact across Jamaica and the Caribbean, Direct Relief is committing an initial $250,000 in emergency funding and has made available its entire inventory of medicines and medical supplies, including antibiotics, gastrointestinal medications, insulin, personal protective equipment, and vaccines to support hurricane-impacted communities in Jamaica and other affected countries.

The organization also dispatched on Monday the most recent tranche of medical aid, including 100 field medic packs and 250 hygiene kits, to Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Direct Relief’s emergency response personnel in the region are on standby and ready to deploy to affected areas as needed to coordinate the delivery of emergency medical aid as soon as conditions allow.

Direct Relief is coordinating closely with partners in the Caribbean, including Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Dominican Republic’s Office of Civil Defense, the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, and local nonprofit partners in the storm’s projected path. These local, national, and regional partnerships are critical to identifying priority health needs and ensuring the rapid delivery of life-saving medical assistance in the wake of the storm.

Amy Weaver, Direct Relief’s CEO, has spoken directly with Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, MP, Jamaica’s Minister of Health and Wellness, to discuss immediate priorities for post-disaster healthcare intervention.

Before the Storm

With more than two decades of experience responding to hurricanes and other extreme weather events worldwide, and an extensive partner network in Hurricane Melissa’s forecast cone, Direct Relief is ideally positioned to rapidly mobilize additional medical aid as requested by partners in affected areas.

Even before hurricane season began this year, Direct Relief prepositioned 13 hurricane preparedness packs throughout the Caribbean, including four with healthcare providers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and two available at the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Panama for regional deployment.

Each pack contains more than 200 essential items to sustain care for as many as 3,000 patients for 30 days, including medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, inhalers, antibiotics, antifungal treatments, wound care supplies, and other supplies.

The organization also prepositioned field medic packs and hygiene kits with partners in hurricane-prone countries throughout the region, including more than 100 packs and 300 hygiene kits delivered earlier this month to the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency. Additional emergency response resources are ready for deployment from Direct Relief’s headquarters in Santa Barbara, California.

Bolstering Caribbean Resilience

As part of its broader preparedness strategy across the Caribbean, Direct Relief has provided $12.6 million to regional projects through its Caribbean Resiliency Fund. This fund aims to strengthen health systems across the region to withstand and quickly recover from the growing impacts of climate-driven disasters. Support has included:

• $3 million to build a large solar and battery backup system for a central pharmaceutical warehouse in Jamaica; ensure power resilience at several health clinics and community centers across eastern and rural parts of Jamaica’s Saint Andrew’s Parish and across the southern coast and greater Kingston area; and procure two mobile health clinics for Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness., among other activities.
• $3 million for health infrastructure projects, including resilient power, cold-chain, medical oxygen, and mobile healthcare services, in Eastern Caribbean nations.
• $1 million to bolster disaster preparedness and response capacities in the Dominican Republic, including via enhanced cold chain and medical warehousing infrastructure.
• $1 million to support emergency operating costs for nine health facilities affected by the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti.

Additionally, Direct Relief provided more than $75 million in financial support and medical aid to strengthen Puerto Rico’s health system in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which caused catastrophic damage, a prolonged power blackout, and widespread health and humanitarian needs in September 2017. Among other activities, Direct Relief funding enabled the provision of resilient energy for much of the island’s critical healthcare infrastructure.

The Pan American Health Organization serves as a distribution partner to public health facilities during emergencies and facilitates staging of Direct Relief emergency medical commodities at PAHO’s regional stockpile in Panama. Since 2018, Direct Relief and PAHO have coordinated the delivery of more than $408 million in medicines and medical supplies to disaster-affected communities across 18 countries.

A wide-ranging partnership with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States enables Direct Relief to work with a network of health ministries and emergency management agencies across the OECS’s 12 member states. The partnership also supports the prepositioning of emergency supplies at OECS’s warehouse in Saint Lucia and other preparedness efforts across the region.

These long-term investments and strategic positioning programs are part of Direct Relief’s broader commitment to supporting communities before, during, and after disasters strike.

In total, Direct Relief provides support to dozens of partners in 14 countries across the Caribbean, bolstering everything from resilient infrastructure to maternal healthcare.

The post Direct Relief Scales Up Caribbean Support as Hurricane Melissa Slams Jamaica appeared first on Direct Relief.

The rapidly growing fire prompted the evacuation of approximately 31,000 people on Wednesday, with an additional 23,000 people placed under evacuation warnings; several of these evacuation notices have since been downgraded or lifted. In addition, the fire has triggered a smoke advisory for northern L.A. County, Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks.

In addition to the Hughes Fire, containment and suppression efforts continue for the Eaton and Palisades fires, which have burned more than 37,000 acres, with 72 and 95 percent containment, respectively. As of January 23, officials had confirmed 28 deaths resulting from the fires, as well as the damage or destruction of more than 17,700 homes, businesses, and other structures.

With as much as half an inch of rain forecasted for L.A. and surrounding areas this weekend, officials are warning of the risk of debris flows and landslides in burn scar areas and have mobilized extensive efforts to clear debris and mitigate the flow of ash and other pollutants from fire-affected areas into storm drain systems, which empty into the ocean.

Meanwhile, more than 500 personnel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been deployed to conduct the first of a two-phase debris removal process for areas impacted by the Eaton and Palisades fires. As the first phase, which began January 16 and entails the removal of hazardous materials, such as batteries, cleaning supplies, fertilizers, paints, and pesticides, gets underway, authorities have started to allow some communities, including those from all areas affected by the Eaton Fire and designated communities from areas affected by the Palisades Fire, to begin to repopulate.

Residents in repopulated zones are urged to take precautions to avoid exposure to ash and other hazardous debris that may contain toxins, such as asbestos, lead, and other chemicals, with L.A. County Department of Public Health reporting its staff members are distributing personal protective equipment, including Direct Relief-provided reentry kits, to residents as they return to their properties.

Direct Relief’s Response to Los Angeles-Area Wildfires

In response to the unprecedented wildfires raging across L.A. County, Direct Relief has made available more than $100 million in medicines and medical supplies, including 2.3 million N95 respirators, to community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other healthcare partners in fire-affected areas. In addition, Direct Relief has awarded $1 million in emergency operating grants to 22 local organizations, comprising safety net providers, mobile clinics, search and rescue teams, reproductive health organizations, and other nonprofits, responding to the needs of affected communities. The grants are intended to backstop operating budgets, enabling these response partners to sustain crucial services and support affected staff.

Direct Relief has also deployed several emergency response teams to deliver critically needed relief items to several community health centers, evacuation shelters, government agencies, relief distribution hubs, and retail locations throughout L.A.; additional deliveries of specifically requested emergency medical aid are being shipped from Direct Relief’s Santa Barbara warehouse directly to healthcare facilities and other response partners. Direct Relief is working closely with government agencies, health associations, and other nonprofits, as well as its expansive partner network of community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other safety net providers in impacted areas to identify priority needs and coordinate response efforts.

Cumulatively, between January 8 and 22, Direct Relief emergency response teams conducted 52 deliveries of critically needed relief items, including N95 and P100 respirators, household hygiene kits, reentry kits, emergency medical backpacks, an emergency health kit, and insulin pens, among other items, to more than 36 locations in support of wildfire-affected communities. Amid ongoing air quality concerns, including those related to windborne dust and ash, Direct Relief continues to receive a high volume of requests for N95 respirators.

As the immediate response starts to transition to early recovery, Direct Relief is partnering with the L.A. Fire Department, the L.A. County Department of Public Health, and the City of Pasadena to deliver reentry kits for distribution to community members by these agencies. The kits are designed to support the safe reentry of fire-impacted households into their communities and homes and contain coveralls, N95 respirators, nitrile and work gloves, protective goggles, and shoe covers needed to help protect residents from ash and other hazardous debris.

In addition to the supplies delivered by response teams, Direct Relief has also shipped approximately $294,000 in specifically requested emergency medical aid to seven community health centers, two nonprofit health organizations, including Vision y Compromiso and Medical Mission Adventures, as well as the L.A. County Department of Public Health, L.A. Fire Department, and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. The requested aid included essential medications, field medic packs for triage care, personal care products for evacuees, as well as N95 respirators and other personal protective equipment.

In addition, health partners have requested antibiotics, cholesterol medicine, glucose test strips and other diabetes supplies, hepatitis A, B, and Tdap vaccines, infant formula, insulin and oral diabetes medicine, nebulizers, nutritional products, over-the-counter products, solar chargers, and water purification tablets, among other products.

Meanwhile, Direct Relief continues to support healthcare providers throughout L.A. County, as well as across the U.S., with continuous access to essential medicines and medical supplies via its ongoing support programs.

The post As Crews Battle Hughes Fire in L.A. Area, Emergency Response Continues appeared first on Direct Relief.

The warning, which took effect at 4 a.m. on January 14 and extended until noon on January 15, was intended to alert officials and the public of an extreme wildfire risk. In fact, as of 3 p.m. on January 14, the strong winds had ignited two new brush fires — the Auto and Scout fires — in Ventura and Riverside counties, respectively, prompting a new set of evacuations in Riverside.

As of January 14, officials had confirmed 24 deaths as well as the damage or destruction of more than 12,300 homes, businesses, and other structures, including entire streets in Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades, resulting from the Eaton and Palisades fires. Additionally, residents across L.A. continue to experience air quality alerts and power outages, while several communities, including in Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and Pasadena, among others, remain under unsafe water alerts and water boil advisories.

In addition, the wildfires and resulting power outages have had significant impacts on healthcare services, prompting several healthcare networks, including Adventist Health, Cedars-Sinai, Kaiser Permanente, Keck Medicine of USC, Providence Health and Services, and UCLA Health, as well as at least nine community health centers, among others, to temporarily close clinics and postpone elective procedures. Meanwhile, several healthcare facilities report difficulties maintaining adequate staffing levels amid widespread evacuations and personal losses.

To minimize disruptions to care and ensure the safety of patients and staff, several facilities are expanding access to telehealth services. Additionally, the L.A. County Department of Public Health is establishing Medication Access Assistance Service Centers staffed with nurses, paramedics, and a physician at each of the FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers located at UCLA Research Park West and the Pasadena City College Community Education Center; the service centers are intended to assist affected community members with accessing essential medications lost during the fires, obtaining referrals for clinical health concerns, and other health-related matters.

Direct Relief’s Response to the Los Angeles Wildfires

In response to the unprecedented wildfires raging across LA County, Direct Relief has made available more than $100 million in medicines and medical supplies, including 2.3 million N95 respirators, to community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other healthcare partners in affected areas. Direct Relief has also deployed multiple emergency response teams to deliver critically needed relief items, including N95 respirators, personal care products for evacuees, prescription medications, field medic packs for first responders, and other supplies, to several community health centers, evacuation shelters, government agencies, relief distribution hubs, and retail locations throughout L.A.; additional deliveries of specifically requested aid are being shipped from Direct Relief’s Santa Barbara warehouse directly to health facility partners.

Cumulatively, between January 8 and 13, Direct Relief emergency response teams delivered an estimated 46,000 N95 respirators, 675 personal care kits for evacuees including soap and shampoo, 170 kits of protective gear for those returning to fire-damaged properties, 100 P100 respirators,14 field medic packs for triage care, an emergency health kit filled with essential medicines, and a wildfire response kit which included medications commonly requested during fire events, among other items, to more than 20 locations in support of wildfire-affected communities. Direct Relief had also shipped approximately $50,000 in specifically requested medical aid — including N95 respirators, solar chargers, personal care items for evacuees, field medic packs with medical essentials for first responders, and essential medications and supplies for people experiencing wildfires — to six community health centers, as well as one nonprofit organization, Vision y Compromiso, which provides ongoing capacity building, training, and support to more than 4,000 health promoters and community health workers.

Direct Relief continues to coordinate closely with local and state agencies and health associations, including the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, the California Primary Care Association, the California Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, the Health Center Partners of Southern California, and the Mobile Health Care Association, as well as the California Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters coalition and Direct Relief’s expansive partner network of community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other safety net providers in the impacted areas. These coordination efforts are critical to understanding the evolving needs of wildfire-affected communities and ensuring that urgently needed medical aid reaches those in need.

A complete list of community health centers and other organizations supported with deliveries of medicines and medical supplies between January 8 and 13 is featured in the list below:

• AltaMed Health Services
• Anderson Munger Family YMCA
• Arroyo Vista Family Health Center
• Cal OES
• City of Beverly Hills Fire Department
• Gracelight Community Health
• Koreatown YMCA Center for Community Well-being
• LA County Public Health Department
• LA County Sheriff’s Department
• Montebello Family Health Center
• Pan Pacific Recreation Center
• Pasadena Convention Center
• South Central Family Health Center
• The Children’s Clinic Family Health Center
• Universal Community Health Center
• Venice Family Clinic in Santa Monica
• Via Care Community Health Center
• Vision y Compromiso
• Westwood Recreation Center
• Various Gap, Inc., locations across the L.A. Area

Health Impacts of Wildfires

Wildfires represent an increasingly serious threat to the health and well-being of communities. As climate change and urban expansion contribute to the growing frequency, duration, and severity of wildfires, communities are increasingly impacted by the health risks associated with smoke inhalation, contaminated water supplies, disrupted access to essential services, and displacement.

Exposure to wildfire emissions can cause acute physical irritations and exacerbate symptoms of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart disease. Some populations, such as children, pregnant women, older adults, and those with chronic health conditions, experience greater risks of adverse health outcomes from wildfires and may be especially impacted by limited or disrupted access to health services and essential medicines.

Wildfires can also take a significant toll on mental health, with exposure to smoke, evacuations, and the loss of homes and livelihoods inflicting major disruptions to people’s lives and contributing to increased stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

Further, wildfires often cause power outages, disrupting access to critical health services and putting those reliant on electrically powered medical devices and medicines requiring refrigeration at heightened risk while increased patient volumes during and after wildfires can strain local healthcare systems. The impact of these power outages and pressures on local health resources often exacerbate health inequities, particularly among communities that experience chronic shortages of primary care.

The post Los Angeles Fires: Emergency Response Update appeared first on Direct Relief.

In the aftermath of the storm, officials confirmed at least 52 storm-related deaths, as well as considerable damage to critical infrastructure, such as bridges and roadways, nearly 275,000 houses, and 120 health facilities. In addition, the storm caused extensive disruptions to essential services, including communications, power, medical and other supply chains, as well as municipal water supply systems, leaving Guerrero’s population among the poorest in the country with more than 66 percent of residents living in poverty and more than 25 percent living in extreme poverty with limited access to food, essential medicines, and safe drinking water.

In response, Direct Relief immediately deployed a team of emergency response personnel to Guerrero to assess the humanitarian situation and coordinate and deliver requested aid, including emergency health kits, field medic backpacks, and fuel, to healthcare providers and first responders. Direct Relief also provided financial assistance to Medical IMPACT, a Mexico-based nonprofit that provides medical care for those in disaster situations and low-resource settings, to augment mobile health services and community outreach in hard-to-reach rural communities, including the mountainous regions surrounding Acapulco.

With cleanup and recovery efforts continuing months following Hurricane Otis, the region faced a new, growing public health threat a spike in cases of dengue fever, a viral infection transmitted by mosquitos that can cause high fevers, body aches, and other symptoms, with severe cases requiring hospitalization. Though dengue is endemic in Mexico and the country, like many others across Latin America and the Caribbean, was already grappling with a nationwide surge in 2024 compared to previous years, dengue cases nationwide had begun to drop following a late September peak, according to the Government of Mexico Ministry of Health. In Guerrero, however, epidemiological data indicated a secondary spike starting in mid-November, weeks after the storm’s passage, attributable to the lingering debris and standing floodwaters that had become a breeding ground for mosquitos.

As the acute phase of the emergency transitioned to longer-term recovery, Direct Relief continued to augment capacities to respond to the health needs resulting from Hurricane Otis, while bolstering state-level preparedness for future emergencies. Meanwhile, Direct Relief increased support for dengue prevention and treatment and helped to reestablish the state’s cold chain capacity, ensuring healthcare providers across Guerrero have the capacity to receive and store temperature-sensitive medications and vaccinations.

Direct Relief’s Response – By the Numbers

The information included in this report, by necessity, includes unaudited figures because the organization’s formal audit coincides with its fiscal year, which is from July 1 to June 30. Audited figures for this period will be included when that audit and report are completed. Numbers are as of October 30, 2024.

In the year since the hurricane, Direct Relief has provided nearly $1.65 million in medical aid and $185,000 in financial assistance to support the restoration of essential health services in Guerrero.

Augmenting Capacities to Respond to Hurricane Otis and Future Emergencies

To augment capacities to meet the increased needs following Hurricane Otis and bolster preparedness for future emergencies, Direct Relief delivered 14 Emergency Health Kits, each containing sufficient medicines, medical supplies, and equipment to meet the critical healthcare needs of as many as 1,000 patients for one month following an emergency, to local and national government agencies, as well as humanitarian partners, engaged in emergency response and health service delivery. Direct Relief also provided approximately 200 Emergency Medical Backpacks to equip first responders, search and rescue teams, and mobile health providers with the supplies they need to meet a variety of prevalent disaster-related medical issues, including infection control, diagnostics, trauma care, and personal protection tools.

Additionally, Direct Relief coordinated closely with representatives from the States of Baja California and Guerrero, to deliver a 50-bed field hospital kit donated by the State of California. This modularized kit, capable of being fully operational within 24 hours of identified need, enables Guerrero state authorities to rapidly augment hospital capacity to meet heightened needs during emergencies.

Supporting Efforts to Curb Dengue Transmission, Provide Palliative Care

To prevent and control dengue transmission, Direct Relief partnered with Guerrero’s Secretariat of Health to provide thermal fogging equipment and insecticide intended for use in identified mosquito breeding hot spots ahead of the May–October rainy season. Direct Relief also provided 1.5 metric tons of medical supplies, including acetaminophen for adults and children, mosquito-repellent wipes and spray, oral rehydration salts, and thermometers, to help mitigate the spread of dengue and reduce dehydration, fever, and pain among those who have contracted it. The supplies, delivered to Guerrero’s Centro Regulador de Urgencias Médicas, were integrated into the state’s strategic reserve for emergency and disaster response.

Helping to Reestablish Pharmaceutical Cold Chain Capacity

Hurricane Otis caused extensive damage to health centers and hospitals in and around Acapulco, destroying much of the state’s pharmaceutical cold chain capacity. To ensure healthcare providers across Guerrero have the capacity to receive and store temperature-sensitive medications, such as insulin, vaccinations, and dengue testing samples, Direct Relief delivered 10 Helmer refrigerators and two Helmer ultra-cold freezers, as well as two portable organ transplant refrigerators, to Guerrero’s Centro Regulador de Urgencias Médicas. The units were distributed to 11 locations across Guerrero’s seven health jurisdictions.

Cumulatively, these efforts resulted in the delivery of more than 80 metric tons of medical aid and supplies to the following organizations:

• Asociación Mexicana de Diabetes en el Estado de Guerrero, A.C.
• Medical IMPACT Impact Outreach A.C.
• Ayuntamiento Municipal de Acapulco de Juárez
• Secretaría de Defensa Nacional
• Federación Mexicana de Diabetes A.C.
• Servicios Estatales de Salud de Guerrero
• Fundación Mexicana para la Planeación Familiar, A.C.
• Un Kilo de Ayuda A.C.
• Hospital General Dr. Raymundo Abarca Alarcó

In addition to material aid, Direct Relief provided $185,000 to humanitarian partner Medical IMPACT
to augment mobile health services and community outreach in hard-to-reach rural communities. With this support, Medical IMPACT deployed teams of physicians on several medical missions to the region, providing emergency health services to rural communities that face significant barriers to accessing health services.

Looking Forward

Less than a year after Hurricane Otis devastated the Acapulco region, Hurricane John struck a larger area with record amounts of rain. The investments made and relationships established with federal and state authorities, as well as humanitarian partners, during the Hurricane Otis response laid the groundwork for Direct Relief and other response actors to respond swiftly to the humanitarian and health needs resulting from the hurricane, including through the deployment of Direct Relief-donated emergency response supplies from the state’s strategic reserve for emergency and disaster response immediately following the storm’s landfall.

The success of Direct Relief’s collaboration with state authorities, such as Guerrero’s Centro Regulador de Urgencias Médicas, was critical to the emergency responses to both Hurricane Otis and John and has paved the path for continued collaboration on emergency preparedness efforts across the state.

As the long-term recovery from Hurricane Otis and John continues, Direct Relief remains committed to ensuring federal- and state-level authorities, as well as humanitarian partners, have access to the medicines and medical supplies they need before, during, and after a disaster strikes.

The post Hurricane Otis: One Year Later appeared first on Direct Relief.

Preliminary reports indicate the storm’s passage has resulted in at least 170 deaths, while hundreds more remain missing. The storm also caused severe damage to critical infrastructure, including houses, roadways, and water systems; disrupted communications and other essential services; and prompted U.S. health officials to declare Public Health Emergencies for Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

In addition, as of October 2, more than 1.2 million customers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia remained without power, causing disruptions to critical health services, including due to the loss of temperature-sensitive medications and vaccines, and putting those reliant on electrically powered medical devices and medicines requiring refrigeration at heightened risk.

In response, Direct Relief has made available $74 million in medicines and medical supplies and $250,000 in financial assistance to community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other healthcare partners in affected areas.

Direct Relief has staff on the ground in affected states, including Florida and Georgia, and is coordinating closely with state and national associations as well as healthcare providers to assess damages, identify priority needs, and respond to requests for emergency medical aid.

DIRECT RELIEF’S RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HELENE

As of September 30, Direct Relief had dispatched 14 shipments of specifically requested emergency medical aid, including antibiotics, emergency medical backpacks, DTaP vaccines, hygiene kits, oral rehydration salts, over-the-counter products, personal protective equipment, water purification tablets, and medications to manage chronic diseases, for healthcare providers responding to the needs of hard-hit communities in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The shipments include 20 emergency medical backpacks and 150 household hygiene kits for Appalachian Mountain Health, which serves communities in Asheville, NC, which suffered catastrophic flooding and damages due to Hurricane Helene, and the nearby towns of Murphy and Robbinsville.

Additionally, from September 24 to October 1, Direct Relief delivered 42 shipments of essential medicines and supplies to healthcare providers in affected states as part of its Safety Net Support Program; the program seeks to ensure community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other local healthcare providers across the U.S. have access to ongoing donations of medicines and medical supplies for their low-income and uninsured patients and helps build health facility resilience to respond to and quickly recover from shocks, including those caused by extreme weather and climate events, emergencies, and seasonal demand surges.

Medications shipped to the storm-affected areas regularly include insulin, mental health medications, and blood thinners. People dependent on these medications could face profound consequences without them. People without needed insulin, for example, may have prolonged elevations in blood sugar which can lead to life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis. Additionally, people who have been stable on antidepressants may face increased risk of mental health crisis, while people without access to needed blood thinners are at increased risk of a stroke. With baseline diabetes, asthma, and hypertension rates exceeding national averages in many of the affected areas, there is a heightened risk for unmanaged chronic diseases to cause sudden health crises.

In addition to the above response efforts, Direct Relief emergency response personnel are conducting site visits with several healthcare partners in Florida. During the week of September 30, Direct Relief staff visited Evara Health, a community health center with 17 locations throughout Florida’s Tampa Bay area, and the University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic. Following Hurricane Ian’s impact on Florida in September 2022, Direct Relief, in partnership with the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, funded the retrofit of a mobile medical unit for Evara Health.

The health center recently deployed the mobile medical unit to provide critical health services for communities in Pinellas County, which faced disruptions of power and water services, extensive flooding, and significant property damages following Hurricane Helene. Similarly, the University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic is using its Direct Relief-funded mobile medical unit to offer a weekly rotating clinic in rural communities. Another Direct Relief-supported organization, Cherokee Health Systems, reports deploying their mobile clinic to assess needs and support community response efforts in East Tennessee’s Cocke, Hamblen, and Green counties.

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE CAPACITY

As part of its annual Hurricane Preparedness Program, Direct Relief stages Hurricane Preparedness Packs in hurricane-prone states and territories along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. These packs, containing more than 200 items, are critical to ensuring the continuity of care for as many as 100 patients for 72 hours in the wake of an emergency. As of the June 1 start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Direct Relief had prepositioned 30 packs with safety net providers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

In addition, through its ongoing support, Direct Relief maintains an extensive network of 276 health partners in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. During the previous five years, Direct Relief has mobilized more than 28,000 shipments comprising more than $561 million in essential medicines, medical supplies, and medical equipment for these health partners. During emergencies, Direct Relief can quickly tap into this network to identify priority needs and mobilize medical resources for healthcare providers that are already vetted by Direct Relief and well-established and trusted among impacted communities.

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