Long Islanders collect supplies for Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina

Bobby and Heike Santos were drinking their morning coffee when they saw devastation Hurricane Helene brought to North Carolina on the television.

“I just looked at her," Santos said. "She said, ‘We have to help these people, like they did for us in Sandy.' " 

Santos, a first assistant chief with the Lindenhurst Fire Department, is one of the many Long Islanders trying to help victims of the hurricane by collecting items and financial donations, and personally bring them to where they are most needed.

The Lindenhurst Fire Department will accept emergency supplies on Thursday and Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Firemans Park Station 6 at 555 Heling Blvd.

Items such as nonperishable foods, water, batteries, flashlights, blankets, first aid kits, baby items, toiletries, pet food and medicine are all welcome.

Santos said his wife, Heike, contacted emergency services in Buncombe County, North Carolina, to create a full list of items and figure out the logistics of bringing them to the area.

From Brooklyn, to Nassau County, to the East End, Santos said he received an influx of calls Thursday morning from different businesses, pharmacies, supermarkets and organizations offering to help.

For example, Talay Trailer Sales & Rentals in Bay Shore lent the department two 42-foot trailers and Hub Truck Leasing & Rentals in Holbrook shared one truck to the department for their journey.

Santos said he hopes to fill them to the brim with supplies.

“Long Island is so great when it comes together,” said Santos.

The fire department, along with Village of Lindenhurst employees, will drive to Buncombe County on Oct. 10 to meet with local emergency services and distribute the donations.

Asheville, which was decimated by the intensity of the storm, is in Buncombe County, Santos said.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman also said Thursday that the county fire marshal’s office and office of emergency management will deliver assets to assist first responders in Asheville and Vidalia, Georgia.

They will depart Friday night.

Drop-off locations include the East Williston, East Rockaway and Franklin Square & Munson fire departments in Nassau County, which will be accepting nonperishable food, insect repellent, cleaning supplies and toiletries on Thursday.

Nassau University Medical Center will accept items in its building lobby at 2201 Hempstead Tpke. in East Meadow on Friday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Residents can also drop off items at the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office at 1194 Prospect Ave. in Westbury (at the Hazmat Garage at the south end of parking lot), Thursday until 8 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Long Island Rebels Hockey 10U Squirts, a Dix Hills-based youth organization, will collect items and assemble hygiene and cleaning kits for those affected by the storm.

Participants can drop off items through Tuesday in the back lobby of the Clark Gillies Arena at Dix Hills Park at 575 Vanderbilt Pkwy. A full list of items can be found on the Convoy of Hope website.

Helping Hands Rescue Mission in Huntington Station will also collect items at 225 Broadway on Thursday and Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. They will be taken to Boone, North Carolina, on Saturday.

Jimmy Gallagher, who was Lindenhurst fire chief during Superstorm Sandy, said so many groups had come to help from across the country they “didn’t know who was coming in.”

To this day the department holds gratitude for their kindness, and to be paying it forward is a full circle moment, he said.

“It’s coming from the heart, because we know where we were at one point in time, and we had to rebuild since,” Gallagher said. “People needed blankets. They needed clothes. I can understand that.”