Noted North Carolina survivalist helps Helene victims on the road to recovery
Hendricks traveled across the state, setting up Starlink internet units to help restore communications and provide over 60 residents with power tools and warm clothes ahead of the winter months.
Recovery efforts underway across western North Carolina
A North Carolina resident is helping his neighbors with Starlink services, winter clothes, generators and other supplies after the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Expert survivalist Shawn Hendrix of Greenville, North Carolina, has gone viral since Hurricane Helene left victims in the dark after the storm devastated the western part of the state.
Hendricks traveled across the state, setting up Starlink internet units to help restore communications and provide over 60 residents with power tools and warm clothes ahead of the winter months.
These communication connections are critical, given the ever-changing needs of storm victims, according to Hendrix.
"It's kind of a day-by-day pivoting to what the residents need most," he said. "If it’s clothing one day, it could be generators the next. And if you don't get that information out, you end up with three days of clothing coming in and no generators."
Shawn Hendrix.
(@TheShawnHendrix / X / FOX Weather)
In addition to storm victims, Hendrix has also helped relief aid workers who were disconnected from the people they were trying to assist.
Some of those workers included 150 Excel College students in the town of Black Mountain in western North Carolina. Hendrix had heard they were working around the clock to provide donations to storm victims, but their internet had gone down.
Hendrix and his team helped them reestablish their internet, allowing them to not only assist storm victims, but to also receive their own assistance in donations, as the students had lost their jobs due to Helene.
Donations at Excel College in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
(@TheShawnHendrix / X / FOX Weather)
"I have influence on the Internet. It's been nice to be able to use social media for social good," Hendrix said. "So it's more about logistics, getting people talking by using StarLink and then making sure supplies and money are going to where it needs to go."
By facilitating the flow of communication, Hendrix has been able to perpetuate the flow of "good" throughout North Carolina as residents in the western region try to reestablish their lives post-Helene.
"That's all we're focused on, is getting people one step better than they were the day before," Hendrix said. "You know, from no housing to a tent, from a tent to a small house, from a house from that back to their original where they were at. And so everybody's in a different process. Some people didn't lose their house, but they lost their car. Some people lost everything."
Destruction, mountainous terrain making it difficult to get life-saving supplies to communities hit hard by Helene
It's been nearly a week since Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina counties, and many residents are still waiting for life-saving supplies as repairs are made and debris is cleared. FOX Weather Correspondent Craig Herrera explains why it's been so difficult to get help to those who need it most.
He noted that recovery may take months, if not years.
"Everyone's in it together," he said. "There's just such a huge sense of community."
Initial estimates of Helene storm damage throughout the state of North Carolina have risen to at least $53 billion.