When disaster strikes rural communities, it can be hard to get help to the most remote areas. That’s why the Disaster Relief Haulers was formed in 2019.
The Disaster Relief Haulers has been to Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky and Nebraska, bringing supplies and manpower to help farms, ranches and rural communities recover from natural disasters.
Most recently, the group made several trips to eastern Tennessee to deliver supplies and lend a hand to those recovering from Hurricane Helene. The trip in October was their largest yet, involving 21 trucks and 43 volunteers. They hauled hay, straw, fencing materials and cleaning supplies. And there was something else they brought with them.
“Most of all every truck and volunteer brought hope,” said Levi Foss, one of the group’s founders.
Formation
Foss, of Perrysville, Ohio, went on his first disaster relief trip with another group from Ohio in 2017. He saw an ad asking for drivers with trucks and trailers to help haul supplies to Kansas to help ranchers impacted by the Starbuck wildfire. The fire in March 2017 burned more than a half million acres of prairie in Kansas and Oklahoma, killing thousands of head of cattle and incinerating thousands of miles of fence.
He rented a trailer and hauled supplies down to Englewood, Kansas. The experience was life-changing for Foss.
“A group of us stayed for a week and built fence for the new family we had met,” he said. “This friendship is still there today and anytime we are out west we stop and visit Englewood.”
Foss and others who participated in that first trip saw the potential in doing this kind of work, but they wanted to go about it a bit differently than how he had seen it done before. He and Ross Lane, the group’s current vice president, of Washington County, worked with an attorney to set up a 501c3 nonprofit and formally organize their relief efforts.
“We wanted paper trails for everything,” Foss said. “We wanted to be as transparent as possible.”
Disaster Relief Haulers take in monetary donations as well as supplies to aid farmers and rural folks in areas impacted by natural disasters like fires, floods or tornados. The monetary donations are used to cover costs for trip-related expenses for drivers and volunteers.
Being a registered nonprofit also enables the group to partner with businesses and take in tax-deductible donations.
The group is manned entirely by volunteers. Each trip is meticulously planned. They work with other regional relief organizations and people in the areas they are trying to help to coordinate supplies and volunteer efforts.
The Disaster Relief Haulers don’t simply drop supplies and drive back home. Foss said when they make big trips, they plan it out so they can stay for a few days to volunteer, giving manpower wherever is needed.
After each trip, the group sends out an after-action survey to all participants to compile a report recapping the trip and finding ways to improve.
Helene trip
The first convoy in October included 21 trucks hauling telephone poles, hay, straw, pet food, livestock feed, flood buckets, wooden fence posts and other fencing materials and tarps.
The trucks were not just from Ohio, but also from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana and New York. The group set out from a truck stop in Ohio early in the morning Oct. 19 and made it to their destination in Tennessee later that day.
The group received help from law enforcement on their way from Ohio to Tennessee. The convoy received an escort from the Tennessee State Highway Patrol into the fairgrounds where they unloaded supplies.
“We didn’t have to press the brake pedal one time from the highway to the fairgrounds,” said Ben Shetler, of Lisbon, Ohio, one of the drivers on the trip.
Motivation
Many of the participants in these trips aren’t farmers and don’t have an agricultural background. Joey Gaylor, a truck driver and heavy equipment operator from Michigan, said he joined because he has a big truck and trailer and wanted to use these things for good.
“I’m not good at coordinating things, so joining up with the Disaster Relief Haulers was a good option for me,” Gaylor said.
John McQuate, a Disaster Relief Haulers board member from Ashland, Ohio, got involved in 2021 on a trip to Kentucky to bring supplies to areas hit by tornadoes. McQuate, who works during the day using his engineering degree, made several individual trips to Tennessee after the group trip in October.
“It’s a whole different feeling than seeing things on the news to helping people on the ground,” he said. “It’s emotional seeing the damage, but it gets even more emotional for me talking to the people about what they’re going through. If you’re having a bad day here, well, these people we’re helping have lost their whole livelihood.”
“Not that I’m good at a lot of things, but I want to do what I can to help people,” he added.
For more information, visit disasterreliefhaulers.org or follow Disaster Relief Haulers on Facebook.
