Dogwood Health Trust shared a new disaster response playbook that captures lessons learned from its experience responding to Hurricane Helene in 2024. The playbook and downloadable readiness and response checklist offer practical guidance for how organizations can help stabilize communities in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and lay the groundwork for long-term recovery.
As one of the deadliest storms in the United States, Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $59.6 billion in damage and recovery needs in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management, with the lion’s share of the impact occurring in Dogwood’s 18-county service area of Western North Carolina (WNC).
In the weeks that followed Helene’s arrival, Dogwood quickly realized its impact was threatening the health and well-being of the entire region. Within five months of Helene, Dogwood invested $80+ million in immediate relief grants and continues supporting ongoing recovery efforts. Today, Dogwood is working closely with nonprofit partners, long-term recovery groups, and local governments to help communities build back better. In total, for both 2024 and 2025, Dogwood invested more than $365 million in annual grants, impact investments, and Helene relief.
The playbook highlights four key lessons from response efforts, sharing what Dogwood and WNC faced, how they responded, and what they learned as part of a longer journey.
- Stay true to purpose. Dogwood’s response built upon its long-standing mission to improve health and well-being in WNC. Relief funding was directed toward areas aligned with Dogwood’s long-term priorities, including maintaining critical health services, supporting housing stability, and strengthening economic opportunity.
- Trust enables impact. Flexible funding allowed organizations to respond to rapidly changing community needs without delays tied to rigid funding requirements. This meant keeping clinics open, distributing supplies, and caring for neighbors. As one partner shared, having that support meant they could focus on people, not payroll.
- Relationships and networks make things go. Strong relationships and local knowledge are essential to effective disaster response. Local nonprofits, health care providers, funders, and community leaders identified needs, coordinated resources, and reached impacted communities. Existing relationships and trusted networks made large-scale coordination possible during a rapidly evolving crisis.
- Speed and equity both require intention. Rapid response efforts must be paired with intentional strategies to ensure resources reach the people, communities, organizations, and small businesses most affected by the storm. Equity is about more than distributing resources evenly. It is about understanding who has been most affected, who was already experiencing disinvestment and disconnection before the disaster, and what support is needed to ensure resources reach those people.
These lessons and voices of grantee partners are explored in more detail in the playbook. The checklist serves as a starting point to support planning, guide decisionmaking, and help leaders respond to the unique needs of their communities.
To view the playbook, visit click here.
Contact: Erica Allison at 828.358.4867.