Photos courtesy of Rocket Pest Control
Unexpected hurricanes devastated areas of the Southern U.S. in 2024, and after Hurricane Helene and several subsequent, back-to-back hurricanes impacted states like Florida and North Carolina, Rocket Pest Control took action to assist affected communities, organizing a relief initiative.
Rocket Pest services Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and were first-hand witnesses to the devastation that occurred in these areas.
“Whenever we see hurricanes come through Florida, that’s something that people are usually used to and prepared for. And though they’re devastating, it’s something that we deal with, we know how to prepare for,” chief marketing officer at Rocket Cherissa Vandergriff said. “Our heart broke for everyone that was impacted, and especially some of these folks in areas that really had not been hit before by these hurricanes and flooding.”
Employees at Rocket Pest started gathering supplies to deliver to residents in Asheville, N.C., partnering up with the Freedom Baptist Church of Ashville. They gathered truckloads of water, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, non-perishable food, baby wipes and more items requested from those affected in Asheville.
Many employees at Rocket were impacted by the hurricanes, some displaced from their homes, experiencing severe damage to their property, vehicles and significant flooding.
“We definitely wanted to try to do all that we could to help just our own internal employees, but then also people in the communities that were impacted, that were right there in our backyard of our service areas,” Vandergriff said.
Vandergriff pointed out that when there’s damage done to homes, it provides entry points that rodents are able to get into. Areas experiencing destruction and repairs to people’s homes will have piles of debris, which are susceptible to rodent infestation. Employees at Rocket also helped those in need of pest services in the area in hurricane-affected areas.
“Anytime there’s significant amounts of rainfall and water, we’ll see an uptick in different types of pests, such as ants and mosquitoes,” she said. “We did see an increase in calls for those types of pests, and then also rodents.
Vandergriff said it’s essential to give back to the communities they service, especially when disaster hits so close to home. Rocket Pest’s main goal for this initiative was to help people recover and rebuild in this challenging time, she said.
“We feel like we’ve been very blessed and very fortunate as an organization. So we feel strongly that we want to do our part, just to help in any way we can, especially to people that are going through these unfortunate times,” Vandergriff said. “From our executive team, across our entire company, we just really felt compelled to help as much as we could.”
