First I hope all of you in the path of this storm are safe and sound.
Now that news of this terrible storm is all in the headlines, people of this beautiful country will want to help. Help is needed BUT please do it in a responsible way. There are a lot of scams out there trying to part you from your money, so please be careful. Here are a couple Do's and Dont's from my experiences working in disaster areas.
Do volunteer your services, BUT don't just show up. If you do show up you may be turned away since it is impossible to distinguish between the good guys and the crooks. Volunteer with a national organization. They will have the needed support structure in place to be able to actually help. I saw many great church groups, civic organizations as well as national organizations helping during past disasters. They know how to do it right.
Do donate money and clothing. Don't dump clothing in a clothing drive, hire a tractor trailer truck and drive it down there. Donate it to a recognized organization that can actually distribute the clothing. During Hurricane Katrina aftermath, I saw truckloads of clothing just dumped on the ground because there just wasn't any place to put it! Rain, humidity, people, wild animals made those heaping mounds of used clothing worthless. Make sure the donations are responsibility housed, transported, stored in a warehouse and distributed. Otherwise, the donations can become just another pile of garbage to be hauled to a landfill. Warehouse space is very limited after a major storm. It takes an experienced organization to know how to help responsibly.
Money is by far the best way to help. Many responsible organizations will help affected people using your donations sensibly. With money an organization can by a hammer, or diapers, or shoes of the correct sizes, or food. When truckloads of "things" arrive, someone has to sort, store, and distribute. That is a much much harder job than buying what is needed. Each area will have different needs, therefore money is such a good help.
Here is a link to a really good USA article about helping.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...vey/603879001/
God bless this nation, and especially those who are adversely affected by this disaster.