By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
A month ago, Hurricane Helene roared across the southeastern United States, leaving tragedy and devastation in its path. Despite early storm predictions, Clay County was spared a direct hit, but many friends and family of local residents were heavily impacted. Mountain folks tend to help each other anyway, yet this made it personal.
Local efforts began immediately as first responders, churches, non-profits and individuals, purged their closets and laced up their work boots to help. Many local relief efforts continue, with entire groups traveling to some of the more remote mountain counties several times a week. There is no way to mention all of them in one article; however, we will focus on a few and include ways to help.
Our own Clay County Sheriff’s Office began collecting and assisting other remote counties right after the hurricane passed. This week, the sheriff’s office received two semi-trucks full of outdoor cooking equipment. On Monday, Oct. 28, $500,000 worth of stainless steel propane cook-tops were delivered to Clay. “The delivery is part of an ongoing effort to bring relief to our neighboring mountain communities east of Hayesville devastated by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27,” a press release by Clay County Chief Todd Wingate said. “BBQguys.com is responsible for the donation to help those most affected by the storm to have the ability to cook hot meals. Both one and two burner propane cook tops are being prepped for distribution to the communities.”
Wingate said they are collecting 20 pound propane cylinders to go with the burners so they will be ready-to-use. “Anyone interested in contributing can do so by exchanging or refilling an extra cylinder they may have or by purchasing a new one and dropping off at one of two locations,” Wingate said. “Volunteers assisting the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Catalyst Church are standing by to help make deliveries.”
The two locations are: Clay County Sheriff’s Office at 295 Courthouse Drive in Hayesville, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The other is Catalyst Church at 1762 US-64, in Hayesville, from 6:30-8 p.m. on Wednesdays or from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sundays.
An additional message arrived from Clay County Sheriff Mark Buchanan. “What Todd Wingate failed to tell you is that through his personal contacts, he alone reached out to the BBQGuys from Baton Rouge, La.,” Buchanan wrote. “He told them of the critical needs of the people in Western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene and secured these shipments of hundreds of these high-end propane related cooking devises.”
First Free Will Baptist Church of Hayesville members have also been “boots on the ground” for weeks. The church posted what supplies were needed. Their social media has been active with posts by Chris Rumfelt, the church’s pastor, as well as volunteers from the church. Within a few days of the storm, they had pulled trailers full of donations to Burnsville, Barnardsville, Spruce Pine and other areas. Many tractor trailers full of items have been distributed since.
On Wednesday, Oct. 2, Rumfelt shared, “We need you. People are thirsting to death and are starving from hunger,” he pled. “God spared us from the terrible devastation. Whatever we can do to get more items here.”
First Free Will has a food truck ministry which has cooked and fed hot meals to many hundreds of rescue workers, volunteers and disaster survivors at several areas hit by the tragedy. Crews have done home repairs and cleared roads.
The church has a list of dozens of items still needed for delivery to residents in impacted areas. No clothes are being accepted at this time; however, items from solar showers and protein bars, to coolers and dehumidifiers are on the list found online. The church has a donation drop-off site at 191 NC-69 in Hayesville, behind McDonalds. The donation site is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Visit https://hayesvillefreewill.org/disasterrelief and like Hayesville First Freewill on Facebook.
Hinton Rural Life Center is collaborating with many churches, individuals and other organizations to prepare cleaning kits, also known as flood buckets. “Hinton is following the time- and field-tested guidelines of the United Methodist Committee on Relief that has been on the frontlines of disaster relief in our country for decades,” information on Hinton’s website reads.
Typically, UMCOR has plenty of the five gallon buckets ready for emergencies, but the vast destruction of Helene requires more. Hinton President and CEO Dr. Jacqueline Gottlieb said they plan to complete 200 buckets this week. Then they will do 200 more.
“We will have another assembly day in November,” she said. There are exact instructions about how to pack a cleaning bucket to keep the weight minimal with very specific items. “I need everything on the list,” she added. “The hardest items to find are clothesline and clothes pins. The UMCOR list has specific sizes.” Each kit needs 36–50 clothespins and one cotton or plastic line clothesline, 50 to 100 feet long.
For information about supplies needed for each bucket, how to prepare cleaning kits, or how to donate towards the $75 cost for one bucket, visit: www.hintoncenter.org and click the disaster relief button at the bottom.
Helene was a historical weather event. Much of the damage occurred from record flooding because a separate weather system had already dumped more than 30 inches of rain in many areas of North Carolina, even before Helene arrived. Rivers rose from their banks, and dams bulged, creating flash floods and mudslides across the mountains. Many areas will take years to rebuild and help will be needed for a very long time.