Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate what Hurricane Helene would do to our area in Western North Carolina. Never.
For my readers who have not seen my sporadic updates on social media — Chris and I are fine. The storm before Helene and Hurricane Helene dumped close to 30 inches of water on our community. Trees toppled, branches broken, power and communication out, roads washed out and sadly, lives were lost. Chris and I are fine, the house is fine and for the most part our neighborhood is fine. We have a several compromised roads and trees down everywhere but our community banded together as it does and pulled together.
We were able to use a Starlink connection at our local fire station when we could get out of the driveway to send texts 3 minutes at a time for the first few days. We decided to leave to stay with our son and daughter in law in Raleigh on Thursday (a week after we lost power) and of course after we had driven two hours it came back on. But honestly, I needed a mental break from it all. We are spending a couple of days here gathering supplies and recharging before we head. home to see what we can do.
Our little community and the town of Brevard suffered a lot of loss but not nearly as much as other areas. Chris and I have decided that we are just going to concentrate on helping out locally with organizations that we are already affiliated with and do what we can do there for now. If you know me, you know that I love all that Sharing House does in Brevard. They are making a difference and are the first place folks in our county go in times of crisis. If you feel led to donate anywhere I guarantee that the funds you donate will be used 100% for storm recovery. Please go to their website here if you are interested in making a donation online. All of the information is there to make donations. They also have an Amazon wish list of needed items.
What did I see during the storm and after the storm? Hope. Hope comes in many shapes and forms. A neighbor helping clear a driveway. A friend dropping off a bag of much needed ice when ours was gone. People sharing generators and storing food in freezers that still could function. Neighbors coming together over a cooked meal made from things that needed to be used up before they went bad. Our neighbor Elaine made it back from her trip from Slovenia and shared a bowl of Helene Soup with us.
It’s going to be a very long difficult road for so many and a lot of help will be needed over the next year. Please continue to keep Western North Carolina in your prayers as we move forward. Thank you for your continued support and love for the people here in our beautiful mountain area.
