Hurricane relief effort backed by Carter, Bushes, Clinton, Obama raises $41M

A fundraising campaign backed by former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush has now raised $41 million for hurricane relief, the fund announced Wednesday, and will no longer accept donations. 

The One America Appeal, founded by all five living past presidents to raise recovery funds for areas in the U.S. that were decimated by massive hurricanes over the summer, said in a statement that more than 110,000 donors helped raise the money for groups on the front lines of the relief efforts. 

The campaign reached a major milestone when it garnered $31 million to help the affected areas in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean after holding a benefit concert at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena featuring country music stars. 

One America Appeal was founded after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston and the surrounding area with severe flooding in August. It expanded its efforts to aid the recovery in Florida after Hurricane Irma, and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria. 

The effort has been praised by President Trump, who commended his White House predecessors on the effort after the concert and declared in a video message after the series of deadly hurricanes that America will “come back stronger than ever before.”