Huey flew to Tallahassee, Fla., on Sept. 27, the day after Helene made landfall and returned home Oct. 8.

“I was deployed this time as a disaster mental health supervisor,” Huey said in an interview with the American Red Cross. We went out to different shelters and spent the day talking with as many different folks as we could. They just need somebody to reassure them that they’re going to be OK and they’re safe where they are.”

Huey is a retired high school teacher with a guidance counselor degree. As a licensed professional, she volunteers her time as a Red Cross disaster mental health volunteer, providing compassionate care to people coping with impacts of disasters. She not only provided mental health support to Floridians who were affected by Hurricane Helene, but also Red Cross volunteers who are responding to the incident.

Marcy provided assistance in shelters, but also went into local communities to seek out people who needed support. She witnessed the damage firsthand and described the piles of debris and homes that now resemble heaps of “matchsticks.”

Photo courtesy American Red Cross Marcy Huey of Warren is pictured. Huey returned in early October from a deployment to Florida through the American Red Cross after Hurricane Helene made landfall.

“After we went to the shelters we went to some of these small towns and then we would walk the streets and find folks to talk to,” she said. “People would point and say, ‘That’s my house over there’ and all you saw was lumber and personal stuff mixed in with it. It was really sad to see.”

Marcy shares stories from locals, including a couple who was in the process of rebuilding from Hurricane Idalia, when Hurricane Helene hit and annihilated their home.

“One couple I talked to, they were still repairing things from Idalia that was down there a little over a year ago,” Huey said. “They were waiting for their insurance to pay to help them raise their house so that if another hurricane came in they would be safer. The insurance hadn’t paid in time. Hurricane Helene came in and totally annihilated their home. And now it’s like they have to start from scratch. They didn’t expect it. They didn’t expect it was going to be this bad.”

Huey has been a Red Cross volunteer for two years. She joined the Red Cross after she retired. Throughout the year, she provides mental health support to people who experienced local disasters such as home fires and floods. She has traveled to two other national relief operations prior to Helene: California flooding (March 2023) and Hurricane Beryl in Texas (July 2024).

After taking some time for rest and recovery, Huey said she is interested in deploying again to help people affected by Helene and Milton.

Also responding was Victor Amsdell of Russell who was among the first group of Red Cross disaster workers to head to Florida ahead of Hurricane Helene. He volunteered in evacuation shelters where families went to get out of harm’s way as the storm hit their communities. Amsdell has been volunteering with the Red Cross for less than two years and has already made three deployments to a national disaster relief operation.