A Brevard County man who for the past four decades has traveled the world helping disaster-ridden areas is now doing his part to help those impacted by Hurricane Maria.

  • Air Mobile Ministries taking supplies to islands affected by Maria
  • Joe Hurston says he's worked the 3 storms with no time to recover
  • Transporting enough food for 2,000 meals, plus water purifiers

For nearly 40 years, Joe Hurston has flown small planes around the world, bringing food, water and supplies.

“We were on the mission following Irma. We were tracking Maria coming and she was every bit as bad, even worse than what we thought,” Hurston said.

Now nearing his 3,000th mission, he’s headed back to the islands devastated by Hurricane Maria.

“We’ve had Harvey, Irma, and now Maria. We’ve worked all three. I’ve worked all three and had no time to recover emotionally, and there are times, to be frank, I just don’t want to go," Hurston said. "But knowing people are thirsty and hungry, that’s what pushes us out the door.”

In this single trip, they’ll transport enough food for 2,000 meals, along with water sources.

To put their mission in perspective, they’ll be delivering 10 water purifiers. These 10 purifiers will provide enough water for 10,000 people per day.

While Joe and his team have seen countless disaster areas, he says it never gets easy to witness.

“I saw a 92-year-old World War II veteran lose everything, pictures and momentos, everything gone just washed away. And when you see that it makes everything, a disaster a little more personal,” Hurston said.

Air Mobile Ministries plans to fly out Sunday. They expect they’ll need to take multiple missions back to those islands to help those effected.