Sometimes a once-in-a lifetime event hits home. On Thursday September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene moved north from Florida and Georgia into the mountains of North Carolina. It seemed to sit over the region forever with some areas of the mountains receiving upwards of 30″ of rain and hurricane force winds. Creeks became rivers, rivers became raging rivers and entire towns were wiped away. One of those towns was Chimney Rock – a place that has some very special memories for Lynn and me. A place that we had visited numerous times, including a trip in the late summer of 2011. On that particular trip, Lynn and I went down to the peaceful river, sat on the boulders and I asked her to marry me.
Back to the days and nights of late September 2024. We had planned to go to a two day conference in Marion, NC on Friday and had reservations in Marion for Friday night and Morganton on Saturday night. We anxiously awaited word from the conference to see if we were going. The more we watched and saw on TV, the more devastation we saw in that area. Needless to say, the conference was cancelled and our neighbors to the west needed our prayers and our help. We immediately started trying to figure out how we could help. Our church announced that we were accepting donations and would be taking them to the mountains.
We loaded up our church mini bus, a van, and two SUV’s and headed to Morganton to deliver much needed and appreciated supplies to Missionary Ridge Baptist Church. Once we arrived at the church, we saw 30-40 volunteers waiting to help us unload and sort the supplies.
People had brought their grills, griddles, propane, flashlights and lanterns to cook the food that we had brought. They were opening up from 12:00-4:00 to anyone who needed supplies and wanted a hot meal. The best of humanity.
To Boone and Back
The following Saturday, we arranged a group of our family members to go to Boone and volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse. On the way to Boone, we stopped to fuel up not knowing what would be open when we got there. Seemed like everyone else had the same idea. It was so neat seeing all of the trucks, SUV’s and trailers loaded down with supplies, grills, coolers and various heavy equipment like bobcats and backhoes. When we arrived at the host church for 7:30 AM orientation and safety talk, there were 1100-1200 volunteers there wanting to help. The best of humanity.
Volunteers have no idea when they get there as to what they will be doing. After the orientation/safety meeting the volunteers are divided up into groups and sent out to work sites to do whatever is asked of them by the homeowner. On the first visit with our family, we shoveled mud from around the perimeter of a house that had been at the bottom of a mud slide.
Our church has made three trips to Boone to work with Samaritan’s Purse. On our first church trip, 12 of us loaded up our mini bus and headed to Boone.
This time we were tasked with cutting trees that had fallen and littered the yard, road and driveways. We had three chain saws humming and about 20 others carrying the logs and limbs out to the street.
Then we headed to our next location to remove debris from a beautiful creekside house that was devastated by the flood. We demolished the deck and wooden walkway leading to the house, removed all debris that came out of the house and removed debris that had been brought in by the raging river.
To Boone and Beyond
On our last trip to Boone with our church, we were sent to Mountain City, TN. The road between Boone and Mountain City was closed to all traffic except dump trucks, construction vehicles and volunteer crews. Our group for the day was divided into two crews, one going to demo and gut the inside of a house that had been flooded.
The other group went to a pregnancy center that had been flooded. Everything from the center was moved out and taken to storage units and then the center was cleaned.
Bikes and Blessings
On our fourth trip, Lynn and I were joined by Billy, a friend from our early morning YMCA group.
We went and had our orientation and safety meeting then headed out to a man’s home in Boone that was beside a river. The man, a fine Christian middle aged man, greeted us. He has a motorcycle repair shop a couple of miles away and has 100’s of bikes at his house and garage that he uses for parts. His house and garage had been completely flooded so several of us suited up in the tyvek suits and went into the crawl space and pulled out the vapor barrier and insulation and put down new vapor barrier.
The rest of our group removed debris from his garage and completely cleaned it out.
During the breaks, the homeowner told his story of the storm coming through and some other very personal stories about positive things that had happened during that time. On our trip home, the three of us were talking about what a blessing it was to meet that gentleman and hear about his faith and his testimony.
Working with Samaritan’s Purse and the other fine volunteers was an incredible experience. Each time we went to a worksite, someone in the group would pray for the family, the workers and the community. At the conclusion of work at each site, the homeowner was prayed over and presented with a Bible which had been signed by all of the volunteers who had worked at that site. Each person would put a few words of encouragement or a Bible verse and then sign it. The best of humanity.
This was our group from TBC when we finished in Mountain City, TN
The below was on the wall at the Pregnancy Center.
May God bless all the people that have been affected by these devastating storms.
