Celebrity women are stepping up to help southern communities devastated by back-to-back storms.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton have left scenes of utter destruction in their considerable wakes after tearing through the U.S. south these past few weeks. More than 400,000 Florida residents are still struggling without power after Hurricane Helene, which has been declared the third-deadliest storm of the 21st century to hit the U.S. following Hurricanes Maria in 2017, and Katrina in 2005. Newer reports confirmed that Hurricane Milton, meanwhile, took the lives of at least 227 people itself.
This week, President Joe Biden traveled to St. Pete Beach, Florida, where he announced that over $600 million in funding will be distributed, to help with rebuilding efforts.
Now, a number of affluent, high-profile women are doing the same.
Country singer Dolly Parton was one such celebrity, who made a $1 million donation to disaster recovery nonprofit Mountain Ways to assist with disaster relief from Hurricane Helene’s aftermath. Walmart, which hosted the event, announced during the Tennessee press conference that it will increase its recovery giving to $10 million for victims Hurricane Helene – a figure that has already been increased again to $16 million since the initial press conference earlier this month.
Parton’s contribution will come from “my own bank account,” she said at a news conference. “God has been good to me and so has the public, and I feel that if there’s anything I can do to give back in any way I can I’m always willing to do that,” Parton added. “I want to feel like I’m doing my part.”
Pop singer and billionaire Taylor Swift made a contribution of her own to relief efforts recently, by donating $5 million to the nonprofit Feeding America, which has deployed 142 trucks filled with supplies to food banks across six states thus far. Those funds will help provide more food, as well as clean drinking water and other supplies, for those left in need by the storms, while also helping communities rebuild, according to its CEO, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot.
“[We] can make a real impact in supporting families as they navigate the challenges ahead,” Babineaux-Fontenot said in an Instagram post. “Thank you, Taylor, for standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need.”
And actor Blake Lively, along with her equally famous husband, Ryan Reynolds, have donated $1 million to Feeding America’s disaster-specific relief fund.
Though relief efforts are underway, states like Florida and North Carolina still have a long road to recovery ahead. As communities try to bounce back, celebrity women like Parton, Swift and Lively remind us all that they – that we – are not alone. “All we can say is that we are with you, that we love you, we hope that things get better real soon – and we’re going to do our part to try and make that possible,” Parton said.
