Community Compassion Center’s Response to Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton with Special Relief Shipments

The Community Compassion Center (CCC) opened its doors in November 2023 to partner with churches, ministries, and non-profits to help them fulfill their mission to assist the needy within their communities in Southwest Florida and beyond. The CCC has established an 8,500 square foot warehouse facility within a few miles of the Sarasota Airport, serving as a resource hub to coordinate with donors nationwide, receive highly needed donated goods (GIK – Gifts in Kind), and providing access to those goods through our partnerships with more than 30 diverse nonprofits in Southwest Florida – and looking to grow this network to many more Partners of Distribution. The CCC is supporting our partners in their own important missions, as they engage with individuals in our community who are facing challenging life circumstances, providing access to the goods they need day-to-day, generating hope. The CCC is committed to share the love and compassion that Jesus has for all people.

Amid the urgency of extreme weather events and disaster situations, the CCC is building close working relationships with numerous disaster response organizations and building its capabilities to meet the needs of our community in response to sudden disasters.

The CCC is participating with the Sarasota Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD), a public-private partnership of voluntary, private and non-profit organizations dedicated to maximizing the effective use of government resources including volunteers and donations to enhance services to disaster survivors.

The CCC’s warehouse facility is prepared to serve as a resource hub to receive and distribute the goods needed by our partners and our community as they provide relief to victims of multiple extreme weather events that hit Southwest Florida in 2024:

• Hurricane Debby hit Southwest Florida on August 4, 2024, a massive rain event with broad wind field and outer rain bands causing storm surge flooding, strong wind gusts, and torrential rainfall, reaching 20 inches of rain. Southwest Florida experienced massive river flooding as historic rains pushed river waters up and over into many low-lying areas, with flash flooding that swamped homes, washed out roads and stranded vehicles.
• Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26, 2024, a Category 4 hurricane packing 140-mile-an-hour winds that broke storm surge records all along Florida’s Gulf Coast, pushing 6 to 15 feet of water into the island and coastal neighborhoods all along Florida’s west coast, including areas that rarely had, if ever, seen flooding.
• Hurricane Milton landed on October 9, 2024, as a Category 3 hurricane, dumping so much rain that it qualified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event. Hurricane Milton spawned hundreds of supercell thunderstorms, with rotating updrafts and tornadoes, leading to 126 tornado warnings across Florida. The tornado outbreak was a leading cause of death and damage across Florida.

On October 19, 2024, the Community Compassion Center witnessed a remarkable outreach effort, with 300 vehicles and 1,400 individuals receiving essential disaster relief goods, prayers, and compassion from the CCC. Thank you to all the volunteers from the Church of Hope and Mother’s Helping Mothers who worked incredibly hard to make this happen!!