Federal Way-based World Vision ships truckloads of supplies to flooded Florida towns
Oct 10, 2024, 4:33 PM | Updated: 4:34 pm
Mike Bassett, the national director for domestic humanitarian affairs for World Vision, talks with Mickey who lost his roof from Hurricane Milton. Mickey said he doesn't know what to do now. He and his wife, in their late 70s and early 80s, do not have a home. (Photo: Kari Costanza, World Vision)
(Photo: Kari Costanza, World Vision)
A Federal Way-based humanitarian aid group is shipping truckloads of emergency supplies to Floridians impacted and displaced by Hurricane Milton.
World Vision, a Christian charity, told KIRO Newsradio it has sent about 10 semi-trucks full of supplies to a group of churches in Hillsborough and Manatee Counties, where neighborhoods have been flooded and electricity knocked out for hundreds of thousands of people.
Kari Costanza, of Puyallup, is one of the organization’s helping hands on the ground in Bradenton. After surveying one of the churches in Bradenton, Florida, that will receive the aid, she found it had been flooded with six inches of water.
“Outside the church, there are wet carpets, sandbags, a shovel – it looks like some pillows from a couch,” Costanza told KIRO Newsradio before her cell connection began dropping out.
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Costanza said she and others with her stayed in Orlando. From there, it was a 2-hour drive to Bradenton, about 20 miles north of Siesta Key, where Milton first made landfall Wednesday night on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida. (Photo: Kari Costanza, World Vision)
That drive gave Costanza the time to see some of Milton’s path of destruction.
“Along the highway, a lot of downed branches and billboard signs just ripped to shreds, flowing in the wind,” she said. “(There were) a few cars along the way that must have gotten stranded when they were trying to make their escape.”
She said the worst flooding has been in residential areas.
“We were just in a neighborhood where they were using a boat to rescue a family – a mom and a dad and their nephews,” she said. “They’ve got neighborhoods full of water and they’re trying to make sure their houses are getting the water out of them so it doesn’t turn to mildew and mold.”
Flooding caused by Hurricane Milton. (Photo: Kari Costanza, World Vision)
Before World Visions’ trucks can move in with their supply shipments, the roads need to be cleared and free of any downed power lines.
Chuck Woods, a summer camp director from Wenatchee, is in Florida with another organization, veteran-led Team Rubicon. He’s part of an eight-man team trying to open up critical access roads, so that organizations like World Vision can get their supplies through.
“It’s definitely my first route clearing,” he said. “We’re just excited to be here to support the community and tackle whatever comes our way.”
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He plans on being “deployed” with the fellow volunteers for about two weeks – the same length of time officials told KIRO Newsradio 80 first responders with Washington Task Force One will remain in the Sunshine State helping rescue, repair and rebuild.
Twenty-four of FEMA’s 28 urban search and rescue task forces have been mobilized to Florida, according to the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management.
“I was talking with our task force leader who’s a part of this mission, and he said the last time he recalled this many task forces being deployed was for September 11,” Mike Halladay, a spokesperson with PCDEM, said.
USA Today reported as of Thursday, about three million Floridians are without power, and some without access to clean water. Electricity providers said they can restore power only after it’s safe, meaning supplies like those from nonprofits are growing in need with each passing day.
World Vision’s first shipment – a semi-truck originally loaded Wednesday at a warehouse in Fife – is scheduled to arrive in Bradenton around 2 a.m. Friday, Costanza said. Workers with the charity said the two-man team has driven the semi around the clock to get the supplies there quickly.
“It gives me a happy heart to know that there are good people in the world who always want to give,” Costanza said, reflecting on all the donations that fueled the supplies. “They may not have a lot, but they want to share what they have. They see the needs in the world, and they say, ‘What can I do?’”
Sam Campbell is a reporter, editor and anchor at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of Sam’s stories here. Follow Sam on X, or email him here.
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