Hurricane Milton Approaches and Shines a Light on So Many In Need

By Mark Steele

As another hurricane approaches…

The rain here in New Smyrna Beach has intervals of torrential downpours and brief gusts and as the worst of Milton approaches, our thoughts are with those on the west coast of Florida who are going to get hit with the brunt of this storm. We’ve seen this before, with whole communities washed off and blown into the sea. Please take care and leave when experts say you are in danger! 

On another sad note, a Yaupon tea company in Asheville, NC - Asheville Tea Company https://ashevilleteacompany.com/ had their entire production facility washed into the Swannanoa River and cut in half by a telephone pole due to Helene. The URL above has a link to a fundraiser for their severely damaged business. Please help if you can.

From our first sale at Rise Yaupon, we have given a dollar from every pouch sold to an organization called “Food Brings Hope” (FBH). There are currently 2,600+ kids in our county that are homeless, and FBH makes sure that they are fed at school and get meals to take home on weekends. FBH is full of people who care, and we are proud supporters. Starting today (9 October 2024) we will expand our charity list to include hurricane victim donation channels. Shelly will have more on this later…

The last time we had a hurricane come over us like this was Ian in October of 2022. Our factory was fine, but our nearby farm was pretty much trashed. As true beginner farmers, we managed to plant over 700 trees 10 days before the storm. After getting 24 inches of rain, those baby trees were under 10-15 inches of water for more than a week. Miraculously, we only lost around 30% of them. We think our factory will be fine and our farm will bounce back somehow after Milton, but if tornadoes pop up all bets are off.  We'll keep you posted as we get on the other side of this major storm.

Here are pictures from Ian's aftermath in 2022:

We hope everyone stays safe in this storm and please keep in mind that thousands of Americans will soon need our help.

Mark from Rise Yaupon