(CP) Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham told The Christian Post that God is faithful amid suffering and that Americans must depend on one another after the recent hurricane devastation within the southeastern United States that afflicted his hometown.
He also advised Americans against waiting for the federal government to avoid wasting them within the wake of the damage from Hurricane Helene, which tore through a corridor extending from the Florida panhandle into Appalachia last week.
The storm left wide swaths of death and destruction, especially in Graham’s native western North Carolina, where his nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse relies in Boone.
The relief organization has been using helicopters to hold food, water and medical kits to a few of the state’s distant western counties, Graham told CP. They are also responding in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. Earlier this week, Graham toured the devastation with former President Donald Trump in Valdosta, Georgia.
‘Your own backyard’
Graham noted the surreal nature of the indisputable fact that Samaritan’s Purse, which ministers to devastated populations world wide, is now helping people in its own neighborhood. He said his own house in Boone continues to be without electricity, and that the media will not be capable of adequately portray the devastation in western North Carolina.
“I believe it’s much worse than what people see on television,” he said. “The smells and so forth, you aren’t getting that through a television set; the filth that individuals are having to live in and work in and check out to survive in.”
Boone is a university town about 100 miles northeast of the hurricane’s epicenter of destruction in Asheville, where Graham was born. Dead bodies have reportedly been present in the trees within the Asheville area, and greater than 1,000 people remained unaccounted for earlier this week, in accordance with the New York Post.
Montreat, a town lower than 20 miles east of Asheville, where Graham’s father lived most of his life, was amongst the numerous small mountain communities Helene decimated, which brings the crisis near home for him.
According to sources who spoke to CP, the campus of Graham’s highschool, Asheville Christian Academy, was largely destroyed by the unprecedented swell of the Swannanoa River, which carried entire houses away in its raging tides after the tropical storm hit.
“We work everywhere in the world, after which swiftly, now you are working in your personal backyard,” Graham said. “But I believe the most important story about that is neighbors helping neighbors. That’s the American spirit, and it is often been that way in a crisis.”
‘Nobody’s ever seen anything like this’
When asked to comment on reports circulating on social media that federal authorities are blocking civilian attempts to assist in rescue efforts, Graham was reluctant to criticize the federal government response, but emphasized the importance of Americans helping one another no matter authorities.
“When you might have a situation like this, the federal government is at all times blamed for coming slow,” he said. “I’ve heard that the FEMA money will not be there since it was given to migrants. I do not learn about that, however the state of North Carolina has done an incredible job to date with the Department of Transportation attempting to open up roads.”
He noted most of the roads in parts of western North Carolina have been destroyed by mudslides and reduced to gullies gushing right into a nearby river, which hampers aid efforts.
Graham also noted the unprecedented nature of the catastrophe, which some have dubbed a “1,000-year event.”
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” he said. “I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Graham further claimed “it’s hard to know” if the response from the Biden administration to the disaster has been adequate, but welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris recently offering $750 gift cards to those most afflicted by the storm’s devastation.
“I can promise you anything that’s given goes to be a help,” Graham said. “You don’t desire to criticize — in a time of crisis like this — the president or his administration, because I’m sure they’re doing the very best that they possibly can.”
“The government cannot solve all of those problems,” he also said, adding that “individuals are going to must get on the market and get to work” no matter the federal government’s response.
“Hopefully, someone like Samaritan’s Purse shall be there to enable you,” he said. “But still, if people want to take a seat back and wait for the federal government to do all the things, it is not going to occur.”
Graham noted staff with Samaritan’s Purse are specializing in easy things corresponding to cutting trees off houses, putting tarps on leaky roofs and even getting Benadryl to individuals who have been stung by bees that became aggressive after their nests were flooded.
He said one woman was reduced to tears of gratitude when one in all their chaplains provided her with two gallons of fresh water.
‘The hope we have now’
Graham offered a message of hope to those that doubt God’s goodness amid catastrophe and query why He allows suffering.
“A variety of people, when there is a crisis like this, ask why,” he said. “Why did God allow it? He’s a God of affection: why did God allow this? And that is a matter that perhaps we have all asked ourselves sooner or later in life. But we all know from the Bible that God loves us, and He cares for us.”
Graham said many forms of storms can descend in life, and there will not be at all times a straightforward answer, but God is willing to stay with us through all of them.
“We all are going to have storms in life, whether it’s this storm — or it may very well be a financial storm, it may very well be a health storm — but we have now storms in life, and the Bible tells us that if we put our faith and trust in Christ, that not only will He get us through this life, He will take us all of the technique to Heaven to be with Him sooner or later.”
“And we’ll be secure and secure in His arms, for people who put their faith and trust in Him,” he added. “So that is the hope we have now. And I just want all of our team to have the ability to share God’s love with everyone we meet and everybody we help.”
