Disaster response nonprofit Airlink is pre-positioning responders for five of its relief organization partners ahead of Hurricane Florence.
The now Category 3 hurricane is on course to hit the United States East Coast, threatening 10 million people with life-threatening storm surge, flooding, and winds by Friday, September 14th.
“Pre-positioning lead responders provides relief organizations with immediate access to information on the ground, enhancing their ability to stage an immediate response in the wake of the storm.”says Airlink President and CEO Steven Smith.
By Wednesday evening, Airlink had coordinated logistics with partner United Airlines and flown volunteers with Mobile Medics International, Global Outreach Doctors, Operation BBQ Relief, and Save the Children into North Carolina, and were coordinating flights for All Hands and Hearts into Florida.
“There is power in aviation and our mission is to harness that power to quickly move expert responders in to help the people and communities affected by disaster,” Smith says. “We thank United Airlines and all our airline partners for their role in supporting Airlink to ensure that disaster response organizations can easily get flights.
Once the storm has made landfall and begins to clear, Airlink and its airline partners anticipate they will move larger numbers of volunteers into affected areas to begin recovery efforts.
