Hi it's Kathy! I am beyond blessed to get to work for this amazing company while living in Washington, NC. Recently a trip back to Fort Worth coincided with Hurricane Florence, and since they closed the schools in preparation of what was to come-I got to bring the Family with me! We watched and were obsessive over news reports and texts from our friends who did not evacuate and decided to brave the storm. On several news reports we saw people in our town had boarded up the windows and wrote "Go with the Flo", putting on a brave face even though worried about what might come.
When the Hurricane finally made landfall it was down to a Category 2, but the devastation in Wilmington, Kinston and our closer neighbor, New Bern was immense. To date they are still working on getting power to everyone affected, and rebuilding and cleanup has begun. It is quite amazing to see how resilient the people of North Carolina are-they are awesome!
We've made it home and were very fortunate that our 113 year old home is safe! The yard took days to clean up and we have a few things to repair. We are now pitching in and helping the neighbors and parts of our town that weren't so lucky.
We've had many family and friends ask how they can help, and at first I wasn't even sure how to answer them. After returning home and getting to see firsthand what's happened and what's needed I have a few suggestions for those of you who want to help:
1) United Way-they have gone above and beyond with support in our Communities.
2) Salvation Army-they've been assisting with our homeless in the area and ensuring they were brought to safe areas.
3) The North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund-they help with the immediate unmet needs in our Communities.
4) And of course our Local Churches! To ensure it gets right out into the Community you can Google a local church in the area and send them gift cards or cash donations (be sure to mark all funds "Hurricane Florence Relief").
Lastly I'd personally like to say a huge "Thank you" to those that called, texted, messaged, to check on and pray for us. And to my incredible Work Family at Auto-Out...thank you for being so supportive and caring! It's a pleasure to work for you and with you!
