Canadian volunteers from Samaritan's Purse, are being deployed to North and South Carolina to help out with disaster relief and flooding caused by hurricane Florence.

So far, the hurricane has claimed the lives of 37 people, leaving thousands without power and caused billions in property damages.

Spokesperson for Samaritans Purse in Calgary, Tammy Suitor, says local experience with flooding makes us aware of how difficult it is to cope with, but there is hope.

"We know good and well that it takes a long time to recover from something like this, and so we're going to be in it for the long haul and try to support our U.S. brothers and sisters as much as we can."

Volunteers from Samaritan's Purse work closely with local disaster relief programs and emergency services, to identify areas that need the most assistance.

Suitor says, volunteers get down and dirty in damaged flooded areas.

"We have 53 foot tractor trailers that house all the equipment that we need to be able to do mud outs, roof tarping, tree work and we send out 200 to 300 volunteers a day to those units."

While Suitor says while both North and South Carolina have plenty of local volunteers to help with the cleanup, she doesn't think the process will be brief.

"We're just trying to help with staffing now, this is not going to be a short response, it's going to months before people can get cleaned up, obviously we have experience with this out of High River in 2013."

Samaritan's purse is accepting donations and providing updates on the situation on their website, as disaster relief continues in the area.

 

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