North Myrtle Beach comes together to get relief supplies to Haiti

From the Red Cross to local churches, support for victims of the earthquake in Haiti has poured in from all over the Eastern Carolinas.

Pastor Jim Evans, care pastor at Barefoot Community Church in North Myrtle Beach said the 18-wheeler packed with food, medical supplies, blankets, and towels that is heading to Carrefour, Haiti has created an environment for community to respond to the disaster in Haiti.

Evans said, “This is not just a Barefoot truck, but a community truck, the community stepped up to respond to a real desperate need.”

The contents of the truck are being delivered to people in Carrefour, a city ten miles outside Port-Au-Prince.

Evans said it’s a place where he's worked for decades as a missionary and the city in Haiti he knows best.

The truck left Tuesday night heading to Fort. Pierce, Florida and then Evans said it’s on to a C-130, courtesy of Missionary Flights International.

Also on the truck, items donated from Bobbie Anderson and members of her church, Nixonville Baptist Church.

Anderson said, "This is just the most horrible thing that I think I’ve ever heard tell of and it's just a way that we can help, just a small, small way that we can help them."

Also helping to fill the truck are members of the YMCA on 62nd Avenue North in Myrtle Beach, they donated 362 boxes of cereal. Executive Director Matt Dempski said, "A lot of places are accepting money, but we were like what can we give them tangibly, you know we can't get a vehicle and drive over there.”

One place people were driving was up to the doors of the Coastal South Carolina chapter of the American Red Cross.

Executive Director Angela Nicholas said they have been inundated with phone calls, emails, and people walking in, asking what they can do to help.

Nicholas said some people can’t afford to give a financial gift and want to do something else to help, many people want to go to Haiti, but the Red Cross is not able to send volunteers to Haiti.

Nicholas said if you want to become a volunteer, the first step is to attend the upcoming volunteer orientations.

Nicholas said that you give people an opportunity to prepare ahead of time; she said volunteering in your own community is a good place to start so you know what to do.

The money that people donate is being used to provide supplies like water purification tablets, closer to the disaster area.

Nicholas said, "We have blankets that are being sent in, tent hospitals and people with special skills that can go into the country and work with the Haitian Red Cross and the government there are try to provide services as quickly as possible."

Evans said he’s been cleared for the flight and is heading to Haiti armed with letters from Sen. Dick Elliot and Rep. Henry Brown, in hopes of cutting through the red tape he expects to be confronted with. "I'm going to escort this stuff completely into Carrefour, that's why I got the letters from the congressman and the senator to clear us in Haiti when we get there and make sure these materials get to Carrefour."

Evans said getting into Carrefour should not be a problem for him, he says he has real knowledge of the area, has been going there for years, has contacts in the area and has done what he can to try and clear the way.

And when asked about recent reports of looting and violence in parts of Haiti, Evans said, “I drive on route 17 during tourist season, so I feel just as safe down there as I do up here, no I’m not that worried about it, I spent twenty-seven months in Vietnam, I been going to Haiti for thirty years so if you're going to die someplace doing something, it might as well be something really good.."

Pastor Evans said he expects to return next Wednesday.