Dolly Parton makes $1 million donation to Hurricane Helene relief efforts: ‘These are my people’

Dolly Parton will donate $1 million for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.

The country legend confirmed on Friday at an event in her home state of Tennessee that the money would come “from my own bank account.”

The superstar also confirmed that her local commercial ventures, such as the Dollywood theme park, would donate the same amount to the Mountain Ways Foundation which helps flood victims in the area.

More than 200 people (including 11 in Tennessee) have died as a result of Helene after the storm tore through the southeastern United States late last month – with the government warning the cleanup could take years.

Dolly, 78, said: ‘This is my home.

“God has been good to me, and so has the public, and I feel like if I can do anything to give back in any way, I’m always willing to do that. “I want to feel like I’m doing my part,” she said.

The 9 to 5 singer continued, “I was heartbroken like everyone else, and just amazed and devastated.

“All these people feel like my people.”

Later, Dolly began her remarks with the words “Helene, Helene” to the tune of her famous hit Jolene, while also offering a message of support to those whose lives were devastated by the storm.

She said, “I know it’s easy for us to say, ‘Oh, things will get better,’ when things are still really bad. All we can say is that we are with you, that we love you, that we hope everything gets better soon – and we are going to do our part to make that happen.”

Hurricane Helene left 4.4 million people without power and at least 30 dead in four states as it battered Georgia and entered the Carolinas early Friday.

The storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression and is located about 120 miles southeast of Louisville, Kentucky as of Friday afternoon.

It was updated to Category 4 earlier in the evening and hit the Big Bend region of Florida just after 11 p.m. with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.

The country legend confirmed on Friday at an event in her home state of Tennessee that the money would come “from my own bank account” (the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 2, 2024 in North Carolina)

Hurricane Helene left 4.4 million people without power and at least 30 dead in four states as it battered Georgia and entered the Carolinas early Friday.

But the damage extended hundreds of miles north, with flooding as far away as North Carolina, where a lake used in scenes from the movie Dirty Dancing exceeded a dam.

At least 15 people have died in Georgia and 17 in South Carolina as a result of the storm.

Helene had already prompted warnings and several states of emergency, not just in Florida, but all the way to Georgia and the Carolinas. More than 60 million Americans in twelve states are under some form of counseling.