Volunteers in the Philadelphia region fly donations to hurricane-ravaged areas
MEDFORD, New Jersey (WPVI) -- The Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, has become a donation depot with volunteers sorting through supplies that are needed in North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene has ravaged the area.
"When I got here this morning and I saw the volume of stuff and how all the different rooms were set up, I almost started to cry, I'm not kidding," said volunteer Howard Lewis of Cherry Hill. "I was so overwhelmed. It was just amazing. This is our community. This is so cool."
So many donations were dropped off -- from food to water, to baby supplies -- that organizers are limiting what they're accepting to medicines and EpiPens for now.
READ MORE: Group of Philly-area pilots en route to NC to help Hurricane Helene victims
After the goods are sorted, they're carefully weighed, and then loaded up onto a plane.
We caught up with volunteer pilot Eric Barrett just before he took off.
He's headed to a rural part of North Carolina where even the small airport there has been affected by flooding.
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"Part of the runway is closed. There's debris on it. So we can't use the entire runway. There's about 1,000 feet of it that's not usable," said Barrett.
But they say there's enough runway to land with a mission of getting critical supplies where they're needed most, with yet another massive storm on the way.
"My sister lives in Naples. She just left to go to Minneapolis because there's a category four hurricane that's going to possibly hit that area," said Lewis.
Now officials are a close eye on Hurricane Milton.
Red Cross volunteers from New Jersey and the Philadelphia area are leaving from Philadelphia International Airport Tuesday morning so they're in a position to help once the storm hits.
