BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Michigan-based nonprofit is getting ready to send a team to help communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.

World Renew provides rebuilding assistance following a disaster.

The organization works to make that process easier and has teams that are still working to respond to previous storms.

“We’re in Mayfield, Kentucky. We’re in Sarasota, Florida. We’re in North Carolina and looking at the Bahamas, even. So we’re in four or five different past storms that we’re currently working in,” said Bob Laarman, the director of disaster response services.

The Byron Center-based nonprofit focuses on long-term recovery, long after a storm has passed.

“Though there are good organizations that go early and do good work. When they’re gone, there’s still a lot of work to do,” Laarman said. “So we arrive six months and sometimes even a year later and stay two, three or even four or five years later to continue to work and rebuild homes.”

On Wednesday, volunteers were helping organize materials, tools, and equipment that will be heading to the hurricane zone to make repairs and clean up from the storm.

“It could be new siding, new floors, new drywall, new cabinets. That’s our sweet spot to help people, and we do a lot of that and as much as we can,” Laarman said.

A team is in Sarasota, Florida, is assessing damage from Hurricane Debby, which made landfall in August.

Team leader Carl Bergman says Hurricane Helene delayed their arrival.

“World Renew is involved primarily in this area with reconstruction and muckouts and cleanouts of flooded homes and things like that,” Bergman said.

Months later, the victims of Hurricane Debby are struggling to get back on their feet.

Bergman just met with a woman who survived the storm to be left with a lot of damage. 

“Her husband and two children, within minutes of seeing the water starting to come into their house, it was up to their shoulders. And they lost their car, they lost their home, they lost every bit of possessions they had in their home,” Bergman said.

The people the organization is able to help are grateful for the hard work that gives them hope for a better future.

“Part of what makes it so rewarding is to stay there long-term and be with people who began to despair of ever getting back into their home,” Laarman said.