The news from the South has been grim for weeks now — the unprecedented scale and reach of Hurricane Helene’s destruction has been quickly followed by Hurricane Milton, which has some overlap in Helene’s path.

In Butler County, hundreds of miles from those places hardest hit, it can feel very hard to know what to do. Fortunately, as always, some people start to help right away.

As we learned in the Friday, Oct. 11, edition of the Butler Eagle, multiple groups of people from the state are heading to Florida to assist with the cleanup and rescue operations after Milton.

Among them are 18 FirstEnergy line workers from Western Pennsylvania and 54 state troopers, marking the first time in more than a decade state troopers have been assigned to out-of-state disaster relief.

Both groups are likely to spend two weeks or longer in Florida, with the FirstEnergy workers helping to restore power to millions left in the dark and the troopers helping with public safety and distributing emergency aid.

We also learned in Friday’s Eagle about the success of an effort to gather supplies for people in Asheville, North Carolina, which was devastated by Helene. Kotch Insurance Agency in Butler has been collecting items for the owner’s son, who’s helping with hurricane relief effort.

The owner, Richard Kotch, plans to leave Tuesday to meet his son, Tyler, in Asheville. The agency put out a call for items and was surprised by how much was donated.

“People want to help and it is overwhelming,” Kotch said.

We’re grateful for the efforts of Kotch and others, as well as the many workers who helped with Helene relief efforts or are about do help with Milton cleanup. They show there are many ways to help those in need, regardless of where they are.

— JK