Union Adventist University disaster response team returns after assisting hurricane victims

The Union Adventist University’s disaster response team returned Monday from helping communities in North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene.

While there, they helped small towns around Avery County with tree removal, cleaning houses and supplying people with food and water. Another aspect they helped with was mental trauma.

Jonathan Handley, a senior International Rescue and Relief and Pre-Med major at the university, worked medical cases during the response. While deployed, he spoke to a man who lost his wife and home when they were washed away in a surge of water.

“It takes a long time to get back to where you were and for some people the psychological effects are even bigger than the actual disaster's effects,” Handley said.

The students found that after the essentials were taken care of, the people they were helping just wanted someone to listen to them.

Makinsey Lonergan, a team lead and junior at the university, spoke about how important the person-to-person interactions were.

“When these horrible things happen, like the human aspect, I think is the most important thing to take out there and just say hey neighbor, you guys live kind of far away,” Lonergan said. “You lived through this unthinkable thing, but we're here to help. We're here to provide that hope.”

Both Handley and Lonergan said the weeklong deployment made them appreciate what they have here in Nebraska, and what matters most are the relationships they have with their community.

According to part time university faculty and Incident Commander, Joseph Lee, they ended up with a surplus of donations, which they then used for cash grants that were handed out to the communities they were helping.