Support Hurricane Beryl Relief Efforts

Our Work after Hurricane Beryl

On July 1, Hurricane Beryl, the earliest recorded Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic, made landfall in Grenada, a group of small islands in the Caribbean. On Carriacou, a smaller island in Grenada, Beryl caused catastrophic damage, with over 96% of homes damaged or destroyed, leaving the island without electricity, cell service or running water, and rendering all medical facilities inoperable. The widespread destruction across the Caribbean displaced thousands, impacting livelihoods, food security and health. After causing heavy damage in the Caribbean, Beryl struck Texas on July 8 as a Category 1 hurricane, bringing deadly winds, storm surges and flooding, with hundreds of thousands of Texans still without power a week later.

AHAH’s Response in Carriacou

AHAH deployed our Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) on July 8, a week after Hurricane Beryl struck Carriacou, to conduct needs assessments and support existing relief efforts. After a week, the extensive need for support was clear, and we opened a volunteer program that lasted from July 18 to August 9. In partnership with CORE, volunteers collaborated with ten local workers to significantly strengthen debris removal efforts and home repairs. AHAH volunteers simultaneously supported World Central Kitchen in distributing over 80,000 hot meals, Samaritan’s Purse in distributing essential supplies and the National Disaster Management Agency in organizing large-scale street clean-up initiatives.

AHAH’s Response in Texas

On July 12, we arrived in Wharton, Texas, to support a hard-hit rural community in their hurricane recovery. We partnered with Hesed House of Wharton, a nonprofit focused on improving the well-being of underserved residents in the Wharton area, to determine local needs in relief and future disaster risk reduction to begin the recovery process as quickly as possible. Over two weeks, the DART team supported local households by chainsawing trees fallen after the storm and clearing debris. We distributed donated fans and dehumidifiers, and muck and gutted a home for a single mother of three.

Our Impact:

Overall, 28 Volunteers contributed 2,300+ Volunteer Hours to positively impact 100 individuals by removing 23 fallen trees in Texas, 50+ truckload of debris in Carriacou, and completing emergency cleanup scopes of work like muck & gut and debris removal on 29 houses in Texas and Carriacou.

All Hands and Hearts thanks all of our donors for their generous support!