South Florida efforts underway to help victims of Hurricane Ian

MIAMI – South Florida non-profits are working fast to get relief to those impacted by Hurricane Ian.  

“This is a really big deal, this is gonna be like the Katrina of Florida, unfortunately,” Michael Capponi, Global Empowerment Mission Founder, and President said.  

Capponi’s team was about 30 miles outside of Naples when he talked with CBS4.  

They sent him video of areas of Collier County completely overtaken by water and showing the difficulty in setting up to get supplies. “Every house is already this much underwater so our team is doing recon, they’re following behind the eye,” he said.

Once three hub locations along Florida’s West Coast then the convoy of emergency supplies can begin.  “We’re able to send the trucks from Doral to basically ground zero within like three hours, so we’re going to have trucks shuttling back and forth sending supplies to all the different hubs,” he explained.

“If you’re in Fort Myers and Naples right now there’s not a dry patch of land so it’s getting things where the community is going to be centralized, and then also things they can use because for example they may not have the ability to cook anything,” Katy Meagher, Neighbor 4 Neighbors President and CEO.

Meagher explained. the simplest way to help is by making a monetary donation to the non-profits that are familiar with this kind of disaster relief.

“Because then we can buy in bulk.  As a non-profit, we have buying power, we can buy things wholesale without tax, and so it’s the simplest way to give, she said.

Meagher plans to plan a donation drive for dry goods and things like clothes in the near future.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava will help send off 96 members of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Urban Search and Rescue Team (US&R) Florida Task Force One, who are being deployed to areas impacted by Hurricane Ian

If you would like to make a donation to help, you can also reach out to neighbors4neighbors.org/