Responding to Hurricane Helene and Ongoing Needs

Everyone in North Carolina felt the devastation of Hurricane Helene in late September of 2024, even if they weren’t in the direct path of the storm. Historic flooding left more than 2 million people without power and destroyed critical infrastructure for water systems in the mountains of NC. More than 1,000 people were initially reported as missing and more than 150 people died in the storm.

Teams from Water Mission and DentiSafe were among the huge outpouring of relief efforts and support in the days that followed. George Green IV, PE, the CEO of Water Mission, and Landon Hilliard, the President of DentiSafe, share a little about their partnership and response to this disaster.

What We Accomplished Together After Helene

The Water Mission team installed 19 emergency water treatment systems at churches and schools and distributed 124,000 emergency water purification packets. Those systems included four Asheville-Area schools that supplied not only students and faculty with clean water, but also hundreds of gallons of water for neighbors of the school that the students distributed themselves.

Water Mission also provided over 1,000 collapsible water containers and 1,100 generators to families without power. In keeping with their faithfulness to Christian service and love, they also brought Bibles and Beyond Disaster materials developed to help address spiritual needs and trauma healing.

By late November, 2024, almost two months after Helene struck, Water Mission’s relief efforts provided nearly 300,000 gallons of clean water for NC residents.

DentiSafe in a Position to Serve

Hurricane Helene hit especially close to home for the DentiSafe team. As a North Carolina-based company founded by Dr. J. Michael Puckett, DDS, a dentist in Jamestown, NC, we knew needed to help our neighbors in the western part of the state.

It turns out that DentiSafe was uniquely positioned to provide specialized assistance to Water Mission’s relief efforts. As the only EPA-certified water testing lab serving the dental industry in the U.S., we were able to partner with Water Mission to ensure the water purification and distribution efforts were keeping families, schools, and businesses safe.

DentiSafe uses the R2A test method — considered the gold standard for water testing methodologies — and it allowed us to monitor bacterial levels in the filtered drinking water distributed in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

In addition to vital testing back in our lab, the DentiSafe team was busy on the ground in the days immediately after Helene to help distribute generators, water filtration systems, communicate with local and state authorities, and be an active part of how Water Mission was showing up with love, compassion, and practical help in wake of so much loss.

Beyond Helene in the Continuing Crisis

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene and all that Water Mission mobilized to respond to the crisis are truly a part of their core work to address the global water crisis. For so many of us in the U.S., that crisis is far removed from our everyday lives. But more than 2 billion people in the world don’t have access to safe water today. The effects of that are profound and far-reaching.

So are the efforts of Water Mission as they work to end that crisis.

Since 2001, Water Mission has served more than 8 million people in more than 60 countries through 3,000+ projects aimed to alleviate the water crisis so many of our neighbors face. These are mostly projects that address the everyday needs of families around the globe. But Water Mission is also equipped to respond to disasters like Hurricane Helene. In fact, Water Mission was founded, in part, because of George and Molly Green were faithful to God’s call to help victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998.

Everyone at DentiSafe is grateful for Water Mission’s work — and to be a partner in their efforts here at home and abroad. Philanthropy and serving all our neighbors — including all those in the dental industry — is part of the foundation DentiSafe was built on and it will continue to be a core commitment for our team. You can learn more about our philanthropic efforts or donate to Water Mission and relief efforts here.