Baylor alum takes to the air to serve his home state after Hurricane Helene
When Steven Follis (BBA ’10, MSIS ’11) saw the devastation brought to communities throughout Appalachia after Hurricane Helene, he knew he had to do something. North Carolina was home, and the need was great.
After hitting the Florida coast in late September, Hurricane Helene deluged communities in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and beyond, claiming more than 200 lives and causing over $50 billion in damage. Communities in Western North Carolina were particularly hard hit, as rains overran lakes and rivers, flooding entire towns and destroying the roads that connected them to each other.
Follis, a product manager at Intel who’s also a certified pilot, wanted to help. He saw an opportunity when he discovered Operation Airdrop, a Texas-based nonprofit formed after Hurricane Harvey to mobilize pilots who can deploy needed supplies to cut-off communities.
Follis had a single-engine plane capable of carrying 300 pounds and landing in small airports in the area, so Operation Airdrop put him to work, delivering supplies to five different airports daily. In all, Follis was part of an operation that delivered more than 300,000 pounds of supplies and evacuated hundreds of people in North Carolina and neighboring states.
Follis says that the road to recovery is long for Helene-impacted communities, but he was moved by the people impacted and the spirit of people who took time to serve as needed.
“I encourage folks to volunteer, to send money, resources — to help out any way you can,” he told Lariat TV News. “It was some of the darkest of days, but seeing the community support has been pretty awesome.”
Sic ’em, Steven!