Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds follow in bestie Taylor Swift's footsteps and donate to Hurricane Helene, Milton reliefs
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds leap up from the months-long controversy cycle to donate $1 million to Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief funds.
The Hollywood couple that once possibly had no haters reeled in quite the controversy this year with the big-screen adaptation of an even more contentious novel, It Ends With Us. However, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have been adamant to pull themselves out of the rut rife with backlash. In their latest move, the Green Lantern couple has put on the humanitarian lens and switched its focus to the ravaged southeast US impacted by two savage storms in two weeks' time.
Blake and Ryan have officially donated $1 million to relief efforts dedicated to uplifting US states, including North Carolina and Florida, following Hurricanes Helene and Milton’s recent landfall. Their warm donation has gone towards Feeding American, a nonprofit organisation that maintains a nationwide network of 200 food banks in the fight against hunger in the country.
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In response to the actors extending a helping hand to the relief fund, the nonprofit’s CEO, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, said in a statement: “We thank Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for donating $1 million to our disaster relief fund for Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Their longtime support of Feeding America in times of crisis has helped our network on the ground before, during and after disasters. These funds will help food banks provide basic needs like water, ready to eat food and supplies to communities facing heartbreaking loss and a long recovery.”
The couple also split a $1 million donation between the same organisation and Food Banks Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The news of their philanthropic donation came hours after their close friend Taylor Swift made waves on the Internet for her $5 million donation to Feeding America.
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Nightmarish aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton
On Friday, officials confirmed to CBS News that at least 16 people had died in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. The storm made its landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on Wednesday night, October 9, as a Category 3 storm. Per utility tracker Find Energy, nearly 2.5 million customers were powerless in the state this morning.
On the other hand, Hurricane Helene struck the Sunshine State at a Category 4 level on September 26. As per an Associated Press report dated October 6, Helene’s death toll had risen to 227. The late September storm has been deemed the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland since Katrina in 2005, and it left victims in multiple states, especially battering the city of Asheville in the western mountains of North Carolina.