Airlink partners with Alaska Airlines and United Airlines to bring Team Rubicon volunteers to recovering communities in Louisiana and Texas
As communities across Texas and Louisiana continue their recovery from Hurricane Laura, humanitarian relief organization Airlink is providing air travel for volunteers from veteran-led disaster relief organization Team Rubicon needed to aid recovery efforts.
After first impacting the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola as a tropical storm, Hurricane Laura came ashore in Cameron, LA on August 27. The category 4 storm brought with it heavy rains, flooding and damaging winds. In Louisiana and Texas, more than a dozen people lost their lives and billions of dollars of damage was experienced as a result of the storm.
As part of its mission to mobilize the aviation community in times of disaster, Airlink is partnering with Alaska Airlines and United Airlines to provide flights free-of-charge to Team Rubicon volunteers traveling to the impacted areas. This coming Saturday, the partnership will have transported 157 responders working in Orange, Texas and Lake Charles, LA to remove debris, muck out flooded homes and ultimately help people return to their homes more quickly.
“Even though Hurricane Laura has largely left the public eye, the devastation it left behind in communities in Louisiana and Texas remains,” said Brent Slough, Team Rubicon mobilization manager. “Airlink’s essential support is allowing us to scale-up our response and mobilize hundreds of volunteers from across the country to provide a positive impact and help communities recover.”
For Airlink, helping its nonprofit partners carry out their missions during the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the most important work the organization has done in its 10-year history. A recent survey of nonprofit response organizations conducted by Airlink revealed that due to COVID-19 68 % of respondents expected their responses to disasters and other humanitarian crises would be substantially reduced in terms of duration of mission, number of volunteers deployed and resources available.
“Our work to support the efforts of nonprofit response organizations like Team Rubicon has become particularly important as the communities they serve are not only recovering from disasters, but are doing so under unique conditions caused by COVID-19,” said Airlink President and CEO Steven J. Smith. “Every disaster is also now a health emergency and responding organizations are facing the added costs of operating during a pandemic. Thanks to the generosity of Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and other Airlink donors, we are able to ensure specialized assistance still reaches communities needing it most.”
Due to continued need and requests from partners to transport additional relief workers and emergency supplies, Airlink is raising funds to support future flights and operations. Please donate.
