A Brevard County ministry is dropping packets of food — literally — on large Xs located in remote areas of hurricane-ravaged Haiti.

  • Brevard-based Air Mobile Ministries bringing needed goods to Haiti
  • So far, 14,000 meals, 10 water purifiers and baby formula delivered
  • Joe Hurston, head of the ministry, said he's "haunted" by what he saw

Joe Hurston, the head of Air Mobile Ministries, recently returned from Haiti, and he's sharing his story of help and the devastation he experienced. He said he's haunted by what he saw after Hurricane Matthew tore through the tropical island with Category 4 winds.

"Many of these disasters look alike, and the best way to describe it is it's like a nuclear bomb had gone off," Hurston said. "I flew the entire coast and saw where people lived and what was left."

Hurston took flight in his Cessna from Titusville to the Caribbean — packed with 14,000 meals, 10 water purifiers (which can provide for 1,000 people each) and baby formula.

Hurston and a group of volunteers met and devised a plan to get food to people in the most devastated and remote areas of Haiti.

They have dropped tiny food packets out of the airplane’s door at low speed, about 200 feet off the ground.

"They had made a big X on the ground, and we just peppered the X with literally thousands of meals," Hurston said, noting he's not sure it's ever been done before in Haiti.

Hurston knows the death toll continues to rise in Haiti, but he said he will continue to help any way he can.

"It's the small, flexible, nimble, creative people that find creative ways to charge the gates of Hell and get through," he said.

Hurston is only back for a day. He leaves Sunday with 20,000 more meals to deliver, some by the air-drop method.

For more information on Air Mobile Ministries, go to their website.