SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - As people in the southeast continue to recover from Hurricane Helene, western Massachusetts is lending a helping hand.  Why does rain ‘have a smell’? Hurricane Helene made landfall last Thursday as a category 4 hurricane and left nearly 100 people dead with widespread damage. The American Red Cross provides relief and support for families and communities recovering from a disaster, and volunteers were already on the ground last week. The American Red Cross of Massachusetts told 22News that they have already sent volunteers to Florida to help the victims of Hurricane Helene. Red Cross volunteers are managing the many shelters created to help those in the path of the hurricane and making sure those who are displaced have a safe place to sleep and food to eat. Volunteers are also out in the communities impacted providing relief efforts and helping families assess the damages. The organization says that for anyone looking to support the storm's victims, the best way to help is to donate to a charity of their choice. Another Massachusetts organization is sending down volunteers as well. The Massachusetts Task Force 1 is a specialized rescue organization that is one of 28 federal emergency management agencies' urban search and rescue task forces across the United States. They are equipped by FEMA to handle structural collapse. The organization is composed of highly trained firefighters, technical rescue technicians, medical professionals, canine handlers, engineers, physicians, and civilians across New England. The task force has the ability and training to conduct search and rescue operations in collapsed structures, assess the damage and provide feedback to officials, shut off utilities to houses and buildings, and provide structural and hazard evaluations for buildings to support disaster relief. The Massachusetts Task Force 1 also can perform search and rescue in a water environment. Members of the task force got called to travel down to North Carolina to conduct search and rescue operations where the state received its highest rainfall total of 29 inches. There are 150 members on the task force and 67 are currently helping out on the ground in North Carolina.  Local News Headlines Springfield Public Schools to launch new “Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow” campaign Look Park Roundabout in Northampton closed overnight this week Grandson charged with grandma's murder in New Hampshire Three inmates charged in stabbing officers at Massachusetts prison WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.