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

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

The country music legend confirmed during an event in her home state of Tennessee on Friday that the cash would come ‘from my own bank account.’

The superstar also confirmed that her local commercial ventures, such as the Dollywood amusement park, would be donating the same amount to the Mountain Ways Foundation that is helping victims of flooding in the area.

More than 200 people (including 11 in Tennessee) have been killed as a result of Helene after the storm ripped through the south-east of the United States late last month – with the government warning that the clean-up could take years.

Dolly, 78, said: ‘This is my home.

‘God has been good to me and so has the public, and I feel that if there’s anything I can do to give back in any way I can 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 everybody else, and just amazed and devastated by it.

‘All these people feel like my people.’

Later, Dolly broke into song with the words ‘Helene, Helene’ to the tune of her famous hit, Jolene, during her remarks as she also issued a message of support to those who have had their lives devastated by the storm.

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

Hurricane Helene has left 4.4 million people without power and at least 30 dead across four states as it battered Georgia and moved into the Carolinas early on Friday. 

The storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression and is located about 125 miles southeast of Louisville, Kentucky, as of Friday afternoon.

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

The country music legend confirmed during an event in her home state of Tennessee on Friday that the cash would come ‘from my own bank account’ (the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 2, 2024 in North Carolina)

Hurricane Helene has left 4.4 million people without power and at least 30 dead across four states as it battered Georgia and moved into the Carolinas early on Friday

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

At least 15 people have died in Georgia and 17 in South Carolina due to the storm.

Helene had already spurred warnings and several states of emergencies, not only Florida, but all the way to Georgia and the Carolinas. More than 60million Americans in 12 states are under some form of advisory.