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Lowe’s ‘Bucket Brigade’ stocks essential items for another busy hurricane season

STATESVILLE, N.C. — While the tropics remain quiet, experts are still expecting to see another busy hurricane season this year. On Monday, Lowe’s will put together some essential items for those that will inevitably need them.

Dozens of volunteers will meet Monday morning at a local Lowe’s distribution center for their annual “Bucket Brigade” event.

After Tropical Storm Elsa moved through the Carolinas two weeks ago, officials want to make sure they’re prepared to help after a storm.

Gloves, flashlights and batteries are just a few items you’ll need after a major storm rolls through -- and volunteers from Lowe’s will pack more than 10,000 buckets with those essential items.

All of the pails will be stored at the Statesville distribution center until they are needed -- either locally or shipped out across the country. Once they are needed, the Mooresville-based company will hold a free drive-up event at one its stores to hand them out to people impacted.

Having the items pre-staged helps them get to those who need them most even faster.

The initiative has already proven to be a big help. Volunteers distributed more than 12,000 buckets to people along the North Carolina coast after Hurricane Florence in 2018.

The program started as a response to Hurricane Harvey along the Texas shoreline in 2017.

(WATCH BELOW: Devastating hurricanes in U.S. history)