GREEN BAY, Wis. — Working with people on the ground in Tennessee and North Carolina, Kevin Burkel is helping with a homegrown hurricane relief effort.
“You go to bed at night and you wake up the next day and your whole life is gone. It happened to hundreds and hundreds of people,” he said. “It’s devastating how many people are homeless. The people who are stuck in the mountains, they have nothing.”
Burkel owns Burkel’s One Block Over bar and grill near Lambeau Field. His establishment, located at 1007 Tony Canadeo Run, is being used a collection site for hurricane relief supplies.
He is helping collect everything from rubber boots to toothbrushes and warm clothing for hurricane victims.
The effort comes after Hurricane Helene dumped massive amounts of rain in parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, killing hundreds of people. Another strong hurricane, Milton, is taking aim at Florida and is expected to make landfall Wednesday into Thursday.
Lon Wendt of Pulaski is among those donating supplies to the effort, including water and pet food to sleeping bags and toilet paper.
“You watch the news every day and doesn’t seem to be getting any better for the people,” he said. “We’re blessed up here with not having to deal with that kind of stuff. I went down the list and grabbed a few things and hopefully it helps.”
Wendt was among a steady stream of people dropping off supplies Tuesday.
“We’re all the same people; we just need to help each other in times like this. If we have a disaster, I’m sure they would help us in the same way,” he said. “We’re all one country and that’s what we try to do: Help each other.”
Burkel, who lived in Florida for a time, said when trailer from WEL Companies is filled, he plans to do another. The current semi is headed out to help people in North Carolina and Tennessee. He said he will load more after that if there is a need in other parts of the southeast in the wake of Hurricane Milton.
“The goal is to fill this semi. We have another one behind this one that we can bring in,” he said. “All day [Tuesday] until dark we’re going to work on filling this one in and then hopefully get this filled, get it on down the road and then bring in number two.”
Burkel said he expects this to be an ongoing effort.
“I have a lot of friends in Florida. They’re scared,” Burkel added. “They’re very scared and they can’t get out. Their highways are jammed. They’re out of fuel. People are going to be stuck there and this one is going to be catastrophic.”
