Communities in southwest Florida are still suffering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Ian. Luckily, students throughout the state are able to volunteer. Let’s learn about the veterans and USF students who have been able to dedicate time and effort to where they are needed the most.
Helping with housing
Ammon Bradford just returned from his second trip to Lee County to bring relief supplies to the ravaged region. He’s a Marine Corps veteran, USF graduate student and president of the USF Student Veterans Association. Three other USF student veterans joined him during his trip to South Florida.
Some tasks they were able to complete included removing cabinets and damaged furniture from homes that had black mold. They also helped cleanup efforts on Pine Island with student veterans from Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of St. Augustine.
Bradford says it was a somber experience to see the storm’s incredible destruction. He said he also felt some hope when he say so many people from Florida helping each other.
“To be able to help out in that way was rewarding,” Bradford said. “It didn’t feel like work, felt more like an opportunity to create some kind of change.”
Bradford has also traveled to Cape Coral with other USF students to drop off supplies. The relief effort was in partnership with the local Student Veterans of America chapter.
The students are just several members of the USF veteran and military-connected community to step up to serve after the disaster.
Dealing with shock
During Ian, the Florida government declared a federal state of emergency. That meant Army National Guard soldiers immediately packed up and deployed to prepare for extensive recovery efforts. One of these soldiers, Rianna McDonald, spent several days in Lakeland as the storm passed, planning logistics and gathering supplies. She then deployed to Sebring.
Inland flooding in the central Florida town wasn’t as extensive as what overtook interior communities such as Arcadia. However, nearly 90 percent of residents lost power and many had no running water.
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“We were prepared to conduct search and rescue efforts, but luckily it didn’t hit as badly as it could have in Sebring, so our mission changed to distributing supplies, with side deployments in nearby areas for search and rescue,” McDonald explained.
The National Guard set up a distribution site for residents of Sebring. McDonald and her unit created an assembly line of relief. This included passing out water, food and ice to residents who walked or drove up–many still dazed from the experience.
“The community was just really strong. People were coming together and thankful for the help from us and other first responders,” McDonald said. “To be in a situation like the many people we encountered were in is awful, but their spirits were up.”
Providing food
While some members of the USF veteran community distributed food to those without power or in temporary shelters, others cooked it for them. Like as USF alum Bryan Jacobs. He’s a Marine Corps veteran and owner of the Liberty Smokehouse.
“In the Marine Corps, we’re ‘the first to fight.’ There’s something so powerful about those words. You’re the first to create the opportunities for others to thrive,” Jacobs said. He drove from Tampa to provide “hot, whole, fresh meals,” to those hit the hardest by the Category 4 hurricane.
“There’s a real gap in those first five to seven days right after a storm, where there’s no fresh food, no water, no community, no hope. You’re walking around like a zombie. And the big organizations don’t have the ability to move as fast as we do,” Jacobs said. “Our mission is and was to come in and bring people together at a strategic point and create hope one plate at a time. By coming together over food, it creates an opportunity to rebuild — not just physically, but emotionally as well.”