Stories of heroism abound in western NC after Helene, but so do fears about the future

Two weeks ago, the mountain towns of North Carolina experienced one of the worst natural disasters in the state’s history. Members of the communities recall Helene’s impact, the response from everyday people, and what comes next.

In Yancey County and across western North Carolina, there had been a steady rainfall in the days leading up to Friday Sept. 27. 

That morning, Jennie Bull was in her home, located about 10 minutes outside of the town of Burnsville, just off of Highway 19.

“It had been raining all day on Thursday, and when I woke up about 9:30 on Friday, I noticed that my electricity was out and my favorite pear tree that I pick my pears from had toppled,” she told Cardinal & Pine. 

Around 10 a.m., Bull decided to move her car behind her house, concerned that it could get swept away by what she described as a “river” flowing from the rain.

“I, thank God, moved the car next to the house,” she said. 

Bull said she only moved the car a few feet. But that decision ended up making all the difference, as within the next half hour, things took a turn for the worst.

“I heard this roaring sound, and up across [Highway] 80 from the mountain, there was this huge log mud landslide that just came down and wiped out the whole [area] behind my house, and the logs hit my house. And there was this shaking and this rocking, and it pushed my house off of its foundation. And if my car hadn’t been right next to it, I would have gone down the mountain. But what happened was the car stopped my house,” she said. 

Bull’s neighbors quickly rushed to her home to save her and her cat, Lily. 

“They were immediately there,” she said. 

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Yancey County resident Jennie Boyd Bull survived a mudslide caused by Hurricane Helene. Bull was in her home when she heard a loud, roaring sound. Trees crashed into her house, knocking it off its foundation and sending it sliding down the mountain. Thankfully, her house crashed into her car, preventing it from going further down the mountain and into the South Toe River. “If my car hadn’t been right next to it, I would have gone down the mountain,” Bull said. Bull was also thankful to her neighbors who immediately rushed to her rescue to get her and her cat out of her home and to safety.

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They were able to get Bull and Lily out of the house through the back door, bringing them to safety. She stayed at one of the neighbor’s homes for a few days, and is now staying with a friend nearby for the time being.

Bull’s story of survival and resilience is just one of thousands across western North Carolina, as neighbors helped neighbors during one of the worst tragedies in the area in living memory.

Over 2,500 volunteers in Asheville conducted wellness checks

In Buncombe County, like much of the region, telecommunications completely crumbled after Helene. As a result, people within the community and beyond were trying to reach loved ones via phone, text, and social media, with no luck. In many cases, those loved ones were safe, but just could not communicate with the outside world. 

On Sunday, Sept. 29th, Drew Reisinger, the Buncombe County Register of Deeds, posted to Facebook that volunteers were needed to help conduct wellness checks. He asked people wanting to help to come to the Register of Deeds office in downtown Asheville.

“We quickly put together a massive operation that exponentially grew everyday of volunteers coming to the Register of Deeds office who wanted to help people find their loved ones,” he said. 

Over the course of 10 days, 2,685 volunteers conducted 15,982 wellness checks to relieve strain on Emergency Medical Services and reassure concerned loved ones. They also delivered over 10,000 care packages to the community. 

“In the end, we ended up helping tens of thousands of families know that their loved ones were safe, which was our contribution to this massive recovery effort,” Reisinger said.

Will Jernigan, a Buncombe County resident who assisted with the operation, said that volunteers flagged people who were not okay or needed extra assistance.

“We have another group of folks that we have identified and escalated to the county forces, and either search and rescue or the sheriff’s office,” he said.

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In Asheville, thousands of volunteers worked out of the Buncombe County Register of Deeds Office, conducting nearly 16,000 wellness checks to relieve emergency services and support their community when it most needed it. Cardinal & Pine spoke with Buncombe County resident Will Jernigan about the groups efforts. #nc #northcarolina #asheville #huricane #828strong

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Jernigan also discussed the group’s efforts to flush toilets in different buildings and homes, an initiative he dubbed the “Flush Brigade.”

“We had a Flush Brigade that formed of some able bodied folks with trucks and trailers and containers and water going around and doing toilet flushing, which is something that has been and continues to be a dire need,” he said.

When water is shut off, as it is in all of Asheville, you can pour water into the toilet in order to flush it. 

Residents are currently being given a two-gallon ration of water each day. One resident told NPR that a gallon alone is needed to flush her toilet. 

“My toilet alone takes at least a gallon of water to flush,” Page Marshall of south Asheville told NPR.

Latino students made a difference in their community and beyond

For Sandra Aguirre, a Burke County mom, the experience of Helene was harrowing and terrifying. But once the storm passed, she wanted to do something to support those most affected.

“Once I was able to get out of that, I came to work, and I said, ‘how can I help my community?’”  

Aguirre, who works at the Law Office of Victor Yamouti as a paralegal, said there’s great need in the community, which is why she’s used the law office as a home base for volunteers to set up operations and provide meals, water, and supplies to the surrounding communities.

“We have people calling us, telling us we need food, we need water, and we’re finding resources to provide them with everything they need,” she said. 

Lily Jentesmoya, a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), and member of the League of United Latin American Citizens of North Carolina (LULACNC), has been one of the volunteers working out of the law office.

“The supplies we’re giving out include water, food that they may need, baby supplies, diapers, baby wipes, baby formula,” Jentesmoya said.

Christopher Pedro, LULACNC’s president and Jentesmoya’s fellow student at NCSSM, said the Latino community in Morganton was greatly impacted by Helene.

“A lot of factories and fields were closed down, and since the Latino community tends to work in those areas, they were without jobs. And without jobs, they have no way of feeding their family,” he said.

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Christopher Pedro of Morganton is the president of The League of Latin American Citizens North Carolina (LULACNC) and a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Members of LULACNC have helped provide supplies to people within Morganton/Burke County (water, food, baby formula, etc.) and supported the Latino community. #nc #northcarolina #westernnc #hurricane #community

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In addition to providing food and essentials, Francisco Escalante, LULACNC’s treasurer and a student at Freedom High School, said the group has played a key role in breaking the language barrier for non-English speakers and helping them access resources.

“Not all of our community speaks English. We have provided resources for the Latino community. For example, we have provided a how-to guide on how to apply for FEMA in Spanish. Because I know FEMA can be confusing, especially for the Latino community,” Escalante said.

In addition to supporting the Latino community, the group is providing support to all of Burke County and the broader western North Carolina community. During Cardinal & Pine’s visit to the law office, a truck arrived to pick up water that was bound for Spruce Pine, where the community’s water treatment facilities were completely destroyed. The group helped load up a trailer with roughly fifty 24-count water cases and other supplies.

“These supplies are here helping support not only Latinos, but every family that’s in need,” said Jose Joue, the Sergeant of Arms at LULACNC and a student at Patton High School. “This is a community that got together to help those in need, and when the community gets together, they’re able to help other communities that are also in need.”

Aguirre said that even as things in western North Carolina begin to improve, she hopes to continue this effort to help those still needing support.

“I think we’re going to do this twice a week, to make sure that they’re still okay. Because not everybody’s in the same boat,” she said.

A church in Spruce Pine works to support a devastated community

Reverend Holly McKim has only been the Pastor at Spruce Pine United Methodist Church for a few months, but she now finds herself as a key figure in a community during its darkest hour. 

Most of the town and Mitchell County are still without power and the water treatment systems for each have been totally destroyed. State Sen. Ralph Hise, who represents the county in the General Assembly, said Wednesday that it will take up to four years to rebuild and no temporary solution is available at the moment.

“We are trying to supply the needs of our community. We have been receiving the generosity of people, I don’t even know who they are,” Hise said during a press conference in Raleigh. “We are receiving donations of bottled water, drinkable water, medicines, nonperishable food, some clothes, paper products, cleaning supplies, shoes, anything for your immediate need right here.” 

In addition to McKim, 50 volunteers from the church and broader community have been helping unload and sort through supplies from delivery vehicles and organize them in the church, where community members can pick them up.

“I think that volunteering is something everyone should do during this time. There’s a lot of people that are in need. And if you’re fortunate enough to have time to give to your community, I think it is very important because it means a lot to the people that really need help here,” said Troy Hollman, a volunteer.

The church is also housing members of the Huntersville police department, who are assisting with recovery efforts in the town, providing them a place to sleep when they aren’t on shift.

Spruce Pine town council member Jackie Rensink told Cardinal & Pine that water and infrastructure are the biggest concerns in what is likely to be a yearslong recovery process. 

“Our waste treatment plant was totally wiped out. It is condemned,” she said.

Divers also discovered multiple breaks in the pipes that supply the town with water, Rensink said. And while the tanks are filling with water again, she expects more breaks to be discovered. 

Rensink said that town leadership is working with the state to find some temporary solutions.

Despite the devastation Helene caused throughout town, Rev. McKim said she’s in awe of how the community has come together in the face of tragedy.

“When the rain stopped and the winds slowed down, we were able to assess the damage,” she said. “Everybody that had a chainsaw went outside and started cutting trees. Trees on houses, trees in yards, it’s that kind of working together that has really stuck in my mind about the generosity.” 

The long-term impact on western North Carolina

With each passing day, the immediate devastation caused by Helene across western North Carolina comes further into focus. But so too do the long-term challenges. 

As that yearslong recovery gets underway, those living in the affected communities will still need to make money and pay their bills. 

Landon Beaver, a therapist who lives in Burnsville, said that while donated tangible items are plentiful in the community, cash support will also be needed to help people with lost wages and jobs buy what they need. 

“We’re a very poor county to begin with. Fifty percent of our student population qualified for free and reduced meals last year,” he said.

Chelsea White of Haywood County also believes that cash support will be needed, as well as a moratorium on rent.

“The other thing besides just a cash infusion is a moratorium, a rent moratorium, so people aren’t going to be charged for these bills, so then they can use their cash for things that are more like food,” she said.

The General Assembly voted on Wednesday to approve the first round of hurricane recovery aid, passing a $273 million package which will streamline repairs to roads, ease rules for burning debris, and waive fees for lost ID cards such as driver’s licenses. Gov. Roy Cooper signed the measure into law on Thursday and lawmakers will reconvene in Raleigh on Oct. 24th to pass further aid. 

Beaver said that Yancey County needs money from the state to rebuild its infrastructure. 

“We are going to need a lot of money for our infrastructure. I know that North Carolina has the rainy day fund and it most certainly was a rainy day in western North Carolina,” he said.

For Tausha Forney, the program director of the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville, it is critical for state and federal leaders to listen to people within the community when it comes to what the region needs to recover.

“I think it needs to look like asking us what we need, and not [them] telling us what we need,” she said.

While 25 counties were included in President Biden’s Major Disaster Declaration following Helene’s rampage through the mountains, Forney said that even within those counties, the needs of communities differ, and for the recovery to be successful, they all need to be heard.

“It’s going to require folks listening a lot to the communities and knowing that we’re not one community with the same needs,” she said. “Our needs are all different, and it can’t be a blanket response. That won’t work for us all. It will work for some of us, and leave some of us out.”

White worries that the impact of Helene could also lead some people to conclude that there simply isn’t a future in communities like hers.

“I think for our younger folks who were already maybe feeling like there already wasn’t opportunity or hope for them here, this now adds a layer of fear about possibly the consequences of staying here, outside of not being able to find good jobs and good paying jobs,” she said. “One of the folks I know who was a young person had bought their dream home on the side of a mountain. And then this experience, they were trapped in their house listening to the landslide around them for hours and thinking that they were safe because they weren’t next to a river and they’re not by the ocean. And so now, there’s this level of awareness too that the mountains are not safe from the consequences of climate change.”

If Helene and its aftermath lead to an exodus of young people from western North Carolina, White fears it will only exacerbate existing problems in the region. 

“I think we know that the consequences are that there’s less working professionals to do the important jobs like stay in our hospitals and take care of our elders or teach our children or even the more industrial trade labor. We’re going to be sending them away to the cities to do those things,” she said. “We are already aware of how that impacts our communities out here in western North Carolina because we already can’t keep our hospitals staffed and we already struggle to keep teachers on board. And I think this will only exacerbate that.”