It’s obvious to most Americans that the epic impact of last Friday’s (Sept. 27) Hurricane Helene will likely extend for months – if not longer – for some of the millions of victims hit by what looks like the most violent storm since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, which killed 1,392 people and and caused $125 billion in damages around New Orleans.
Helene’s tally thus far: 162 dead across six states and nearly a million powerless homes and businesses amid widespread flash flooding and landslides isolating countless people in western Carolina and elsewhere, according to this morning’s national media reports
Among those scrambling to assist in the recovery in this business sector is Denver-based OHI, formerly known as the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds, which is openly appealing for emergency funding for impacted parks and issued this appeal yesterday for donations to its Disaster Relief Fund.
“Wherever your park is located in the country, you can do something to help your fellow campground owners and their communities,” a widely circulated release stated. “Donate to the OHI Foundation’s Disaster Relief Fund, which will go directly to campgrounds affected by this natural disaster. Your donations will make a difference for your fellow campground owners AND the communities they call home. If you’d like to share your willingness to assist those in need with shelter and other needs, visit our Facebook group, Campfire Voices, and leave a comment on this post.”
In light of all this and the fact that this whole turn of events is about to enter its second week, RVBusiness and its sister publication, Woodall’s Campground Magazine, touched bases earlier today with David Basler, chief strategy officer for OHI, a trade association representing private RV parks and campgrounds in the U.S. and Canada. The highlights of that conversation are as follows:
RVB: Looks to us like it’s been a heck of a week, David, for you and your constituency.
Basler: Yeah, and not just our constituency. There’s lots of members of the outdoor hospitality community that have been affected that aren’t members of our organization. Of course, our focus as a national association is obviously on our members, but our goal is to help the whole industry.
RVB: And what are you seeing out there right now?
Basler: “Well, the latest update that I have so far is that we’ve heard from more than 50 campgrounds from across the five (impacted) states — and the five states I’m talking about here are Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, obviously – primarily RV parks that have sustained what I would describe as severe damage, major damage. In at least four cases that we know of the campground is completely gone, and there’ll be an extensive rebuilding over the course of the next few months, multiple months probably in some cases.
RVB: Have you ever seen anything like it before?
Basler: Well, there are plenty of people like Jeff Sims (OHI’s director of state relations and program advocacy) who have been around here long enough to remember Katrina, which, from what I’m seeing on the news lately was the worst in documented history. So, it’s possible that our friends in the New Orleans area and Louisiana and Mississippi and that area where Katrina hit experienced this or worse, but that was before my time in the industry.
RVB: So, what’s the focus of your organization’s collective efforts at this point?
Basler: Well, as OHI, our number one focus is still working with our friends down in the Carolinas and the other states’ associations to get contact with a lot of these parks. I mentioned the number 50 that we’ve heard from, but there are plenty of others that we haven’t heard from, largely because of remaining power outages and the like. So, communication right now is really bad. I spent yesterday on the phone trying to reach people and working with people like CARVC’s Dee Witting in the Carolinas. And I know that Dee is actively trying to communicate with parks down there in the Carolinas. I’m sure other states, Florida and Georgia are doing the same, and we’re trying to do it from the national level.
We’re just trying to communicate and to get in touch with these parks to make sure they’re okay. That’s step No. 1. Step No. 2 is where the OHI Foundation comes in, and that’s making sure that the parks that have been affected get aid as quickly as possible from the Disaster Relief Fund. And that, over the course of the last few years with all the disasters that have happened, has been depleted. So, we’re actively campaigning for donations at the moment to try to replenish that fund so that we can help these campgrounds. And we put a email out yesterday-
RVB: We had noticed your releases along these lines.
Basler: Yes, with a goal, and this is an important update we wanted to give you because we put that out yesterday, thinking that a $75,000 goal would adequate. And we had it in our head that if we could help 15 campgrounds, that would be great, and the demand has just been overwhelming. We’ve already received more than 20 applications, and that number’s going to go up, and if each of those campgrounds gets the $5,000 grant from the foundation, that’s $100,000 right there. We’re likely very soon going to be increasing that goal, probably to at least $150,000 if not higher because the need is just so great. As for an update on where we are with the donations received, the last I heard, which was late yesterday, was that we were coming close to $30,000. We are still a ways away from those goals. We need people to chip in and help us help these campgrounds.
And the other piece I think it’s important to note here is that the foundation is a 501(c)(3), and these donations go straight to the campgrounds. I’m not steering people away from any other way of donating to any other great cause out there, but I think that’s one of the things that makes the foundation really special in our industry is that money comes in and it goes straight back out to the campground that applies, and we make sure that those campgrounds in the most need are getting funds quickly. But we’ve got to have the funds to do it.
RVB: Considering your comments, last week’s natural disaster has obviously been a huge diversion for all of you at OHI.
Basler: Well, yes, it’s changed our focus, but that’s not unusual for a national organization that has to be nimble and go where the members most need us. But one thing I also would say is that the change to our day is nothing compared to what the changes have been for the affected parks. Although I’ve lived through natural disasters including a number of tornadoes growing up in the Midwest, I have a hard time even imagining what they’re going through right now. It’s just kind of unfathomable.
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