Founder of Tampa-based Amscot kicks in $1M for Hurricane Helene relief

Helene was bad, but it isn't the last storm for hurricane season.

While Florida braces for Hurricane Milton which is now a Category 4 storm, assistance is still pouring in to victims of Hurricane Helen which slammed Florida on Sept. 26 and plowed into several other states not even two weeks ago.

Tampa-based Amscot financial services is donating $1 million to help victims of Helene. Amscot founder Ian MacKechnie and his wife, Jean, are kicking in the funding, which will go directly to the American Red Cross to help the agency’s relief efforts for those caught in the path of Helene.

“Hurricane Helene has forever changed the lives of so many across Florida. Families are hurting, and they need our help,” MacKechnie said in a prepared statement. “For more than three decades, Florida has been our home. In times like these, it’s our responsibility to stand with our neighbors and loved ones and do everything we can to ease their burden as they face some of their darkest days.”

Amscot is the latest among dozens of American companies providing relief funding to help victims of Hurricane Helene. The relief efforts continue not only on Florida’s Gulf Coast and Big Bend areas, but well into Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

While many corporations have stepped up to help Helene relief, FloridaCommerce started the distribution of so-called “bridge loans” to aid small businesses in the state recover from the negative impacts of Helene.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services also instituted disaster recovery loans for farmers in the state.

“An applicant may not receive more than one loan per storm, more than two loans per year, or more than five loans in any three-year period,” the agency said in the press release.

Hurricane Helene struck Florida as a Category 4 storm, causing serious damage with its high winds and devastating storm surge.

During a Special Session last year, the Legislature passed HB 1-C, which gave $75 million to establish the revolving loan fund to help farmers recover from hurricanes and national disasters.