TREASURE VALLEY — Some Treasure Valley natives are providing relief to those heavily impacted by Hurricane Dorian.
Mission Aviation Fellowship transports medicine, food, and clean water to hard-to-reach disaster areas by plane. Staff arrived in the Bahamas on Wednesday and there is a possibility they will send more if needed.
The group always has supplies and resources ready to go anytime they need to leave at a moment's notice.
"With the level of devastation it's really hard for a lot of people to continue living out there," said John Woodberry, Mission Aviation Fellowship.
Woodberry says he is helping with flight operations coordination in Nassau, the capitol of the Bahamas which he says is being used as a hub for flights and resources.
"People can get in and out. The right supplies can get in and out and space available. There's a lot of evacuating people out," Woodberry said.
Woodberry says M.A.F. is not flying their own planes, but they are partnering with an organization called Samaritan's Purse. The M.A.F. staff is helping by making sure supplies and food get to the right place including making sure doctors and nurses get to an emergency hospital.
"They can handle like 100 patients, 40 beds and even has an operating theater. A key thing is flying that equipment in from the U.S," said Woodberry.
Woodberry says in these situations, there are no regular days.
"You start forgetting what day it is because the days are just blurring together," Woodberry said, "but that's how it is in the initial surge phase of a response and because the need is great and so you just all jump together, get it done best as you can with what's realistic."
