While the damage from Milton took place hundreds of miles away – Niceville first responders and humanitarians have already begun their response to help Central Floridians affected by the storm.

Niceville’s 3rd Planet Brewing Co-Owner, Tim McCool, announced at Niceville’s City Council Meeting that the brewery will host a drive for supplies that will likely ship to Central Florida. Initially, they were to go to people affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

The drop off for supplies will take place on Friday (3 PM to 8 PM), Saturday (12 to 4PM), and Sunday (12 to 4 PM) of this week.

The event coordinator – Kim Massino of Kim Massino Mental Health Services, will use 3rd Planet’s facilities as a staging area to collect the supplies. “We didn’t put [the event] together,” McCool said, “It was put together by a lot of different organizations, but we’re fortunate enough to where we can host things like this and provide that opportunity to give back to the community.” On their list for people in need, the organizers asked for the following to be brought:

• Water
• 5-gallon jerry cans
• Children’s diapers
• Books
• Coloring Books
• Reflective vests
• Flashlights
• Solar lights
• Chainsaws
• Fuel cans
• Pillows
• Cots
• Sleeping blankets

as well as “anything you can imagine they are without,” McCool said to the council and the crowd.

Fire Response

As residents prepare to ship supplies to hurricane-affected areas, the Niceville Fire Assistant Chief Matt Webster readies his second crew in as many weeks to respond to the storm as a part of an Okaloosa County-based strike team.

In their September response to Helene, the strike team saw duty supporting first responders already on the ground in the areas east of Tallahassee affected by Helene. The team did get some in-the-field experience in search and rescue as well.

He says that the chance to help others strengthens the bonds between communities generally but also keeps his firefighters ready to respond to a similar situation in Niceville by giving them much-needed reps. “Every time we go to these different responses, [Niceville firefighters are] learning to think the things that we need, asset wise, manpower wise,” Webster said, “It just makes us wake up a little bit again and try to get, you know that response plan set up together.”