Convoy of Hope prepares for Hurricane Florence to hit

As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, Springfield-based Convoy of Hope is getting its disaster teams and resources ready to go.

Convoy of Hope spokesman Jeff Nene said this morning a small team and a truckload of supplies are leaving today to head to a site close to the storm’s path. Separately, another person is flying to Raleigh, North Carolina, to set up shop in the state’s emergency operations center.

Multiple vehicles and teams are slated to leave tomorrow for an unknown destination to be ready for the storm’s potentially damaging impact, Nene said. The teams plan to bring several truckloads of disaster relief supplies shipped from Convoy of Hope’s world distribution center at 330 S. Patterson Ave. in Springfield.

“The objective is to get to North or South Carolina ahead of the storm and be ready to come in behind it on the weak side,” he said via email. “We are treating this one seriously. We are deploying a similar group and equipment that we did last year for Hurricane Harvey in Texas.”

The National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center is predicting maximum sustained winds of 130 mph heading toward the coastal areas of the Carolinas will hit Friday morning.

More than 1 million residents living in the coastal areas of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina have been ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Florence approaches, according to media reports. Real estate industry firm CoreLogic has predicted reconstruction costs of $170.2 billion could be left in the wake of the hurricane.