Look for the Grey Shirts

As a veteran-led disaster relief nonprofit, Team Rubicon deploys volunteers to help people recover from disasters like Hurricane Helene.

When Team Rubicon arrives in your city, these volunteers—or Greyshirts—start looking to provide assistance by first visiting the hardest hit areas. As they find clients needing assistance, work orders are created to capture all the clients’s unmet needs. Team Rubicon utilizes these work orders to prioritize work that Team Rubicon can do immediately and also refers the clients, via the work order, to other Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.

For anyone outside the disaster zone wondering how to help hurricane victims, one of the most effective ways to support hurricane relief is by donating to reputable organizations that specialize in disaster response. These organizations have the infrastructure and expertise to quickly mobilize resources where they are needed most. Now nearly 15 years old, Team Rubicon is a disaster relief nonprofit that mobilizes veterans, civilians, and first responders to provide disaster relief in the days and weeks after a hurricane. It has responded to numerous hurricanes in Florida, including last year’s Hurricane Idalia in Florida’s Big Bend region and 2022’s Hurricane Ian. The organization has already deployed teams to remove Hurricane Helene damage in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and deployed recon teams in Florida and Georgia to assess hurricane damage.