A nonprofit in North Texas is shuttling supplies to people affected by flash flooding in the Hill Country. Operation Airdrop is flying supplies out of Addison Airport and Burnet Municipal Airport northwest of Austin.
"Right now, we need things like shovels and big rakes to clean. We're shipping down chainsaws, chainsaw oil," says the organization's Larry Robicheaux. "These are things to clean out homes that have been flooded and also recovery teams can use to try to muck through debris and look for people who are deceased."
Operation Airdrop launched after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Robicheaux says the group has responded to 15 disasters since then.
"This came up really quickly," he says. "We normally see a hurricane coming and have four or five days to plan. We had four or five minutes to plan for this one."
Robicheaux says the group has been pulling supplies from the across the state. People who want to donate can drop off shovels, chainsaws and bug spray at Millionaire FBO at Addison Airport:
4350 Westgrove Dr
Addison, TX 75001
People can also drop off supplies at the Commemorative Air Force at Dallas Executive Airport:
5661 Mariner Dr
Dallas, TX 75237
North of Austin, people can also bring supplies to Burnet Municipal Airport:
2302 S Water St
Burnett, TX 78611
Robicheaux says many donations have come from families who have a connection to the camp.
"It's the average person who've seen the disaster. We've had many people who called us and said, 'I had a friend who was at the camp there, and they survived,' but many people didn't," he says. "We've gotten very heartfelt contributions."
People can also make donations at operationairdrop.org.