Christina Lewis is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene—even before Hurricane Milton followed in its wake—nonprofit charitable organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse and Save Our Allies stepped up to help the storm’s victims.
The president of Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham, told The Daily Signal in a telephone interview that one of the positive things he has seen is neighbor helping neighbor.
“If you’re going to sit in your house or your apartment waiting for the government to come—well, good luck. You’re going to be waiting a long time,” said Graham, the son of the legendary late evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham.
Meet Dianne Messer, who, along with Doug Warden, who is 93-year-old, run Big Oak Mobile Park in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Dianne was kind enough to show me around the property and introduce me to some of the residence, many of whom have been without power for 10 days.… pic.twitter.com/tRZuvYhqi9
Meanwhile, Save Our Allies founder Sarah Verardo said western North Carolina resembles a war zone in the wake of Helene.
“We are seeing incredible hearts of helping and service,” Verardo said. “And our volunteer team of mostly Special Operations veterans is in there, working right alongside our government and private partners to just be the somebody and be in there making a difference.”
The organization has saved lives, including that of an 11-day-old baby born prematurely, she said.
The veterans on Verardo’s team said the destruction they see in North Carolina resembles what they saw in Afghanistan.
Notice the house on the left. A giant oak tree split it in half. The owner was home at the time and survived. pic.twitter.com/RWV2EQwenx
Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian organization that provides spiritual and material aid to hurting people around the world, has deployed more than 9,000 volunteers to help families affected by the hurricane. The organization sent three water-filtration systems to hard-hit areas in western North Carolina on Oct. 4.
(Samaritan’s Purse photo)
In a statement, Graham said the systems were originally intended to be used overseas, but now they are needed here in America.
“We are airlifting supplies, mudding out homes, removing trees, and doing so much more—all in Jesus’ name—and we’re thankful for everyone who is helping make it possible,” he said. “We want to remind each person that we help that God loves and cares for them and hasn’t forgotten them.”
The organization had delivered emergency relief supplies in more than 150 helicopter operations, Graham told the Daily Signal.
Meanwhile, Sean Lee, ground team commander of Save Our Allies, said people ask him every day where the Federal Emergency Management Agency is.
“It’s the community, the community of North Carolina, the community of helpers who are here on the ground making a difference every day to try to keep these people alive until there is a bigger response,” Lee said. “We hit communities every day that are just devastated. And I keep using that word, because I can’t find another word.”
FEMA allocated $650 million of this year’s budget to the funding of its Shelters and Services Program “to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security.”
As of Monday, FEMA had spent more than $210 million on Hurricane Helene assistance.
Spoke with a Henderson County native, Tristin, in a Waffle House just south of Asheville. He and his wife have been without power for 9 days.
He called Kamala Harris a “phony.”
I asked him what he thought about FEMA spending $1 billion to house illegal aliens:
TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw has partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and Michaels Stores, an arts and crafts retail chain, to provide supplies to hurricane victims. In a video, McGraw said, that unlike FEMA, Samaritan’s Purse puts “verbs in their sentences” and “they’re out doing things” to help the victims of Hurricane Helene.
— Merit Street | Providing Clarity & Solutions (@MeritStreet) October 8, 2024
Graham said it’s a very worrisome thing that hundreds of people in North Carolina remain missing about 10 days after Helene dissipated.
“We can replace stuff and roads and things like that, but we can’t replace people,” Graham told the Daily Signal. “And, so, I’ve just asked people to pray for the families that have lost loved ones and those that are still missing.”
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Vance demolished Walz in the last debate, and all he used was the truth, while Walz fumbled under the weight of his lies.
Tim Walz melts down at debate when pressed to explain his China trip, admits he ‘misspoke’
By Mariane Angela – Oct 2, 2024
When confronted with the discrepancy by the host, Walz responded with a lengthy discourse on his background and various accomplishments. (Daily Caller News Foundation) — Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faltered when pressed to clarify his previous claims that he was present in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 during the vice presidential debate against Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. Despite earlier claims of being in the region during the pivotal events of spring 1989, credible reports from Minnesota Public Radio and other outlets have shown that Walz did not travel to Asia until several months later, as pointed out by the debate host. When confronted with the discrepancy by the host, Walz responded with a lengthy discourse on his background and various… (READ MORE)
A.F. Branco Cartoon – After Kamala’s Administration blew all the FEMA money on illegals, she’s offering $750.00 to the victims of Helene. Billions have gone to Ukraine, and now millions are going to Lebanon.
Smash-Mouth Marxism: Kamala Harris Brags Online About Sending $157 Million to Lebanon As Southeast US Suffers Through Historic Flooding and FEMA Admits It Blew Money on Illegals
By Jim Hoft – Oct. 6, 2024
This is what you call smash-mouth Marxism. They mock you in your suffering because they know they can. As long as elections can be stolen this is what you can expect from your ‘representative’ government. On Saturday, Kamala Harris bragged online about the Biden regime sending $157 million to war-ravaged Lebanon. She then added that over $385 million has gone to assist Hezbollah-ruled Lebanon over the past year. (READ MORE)
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Residents in the Lake Lure area of North Carolina recounted the powerful floods that struck last week. John Payne, a volunteer firefighter who was born and raised in one of the hardest hit areas says the village ‘will bounce back.’ (AP video by Erik Verduzco and Mike Stewart/Production by Takahiro Kinoshita)
A mass of debris, including overturned pontoon boats and splintered wooden docks and tree trunks, covered the surface of Lake Lure, a picturesque spot tucked between the mountains outside Asheville.
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Debris is strewn on the lake in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Lake Lure, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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A home is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Two Sheriff deputies walk on the main street in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Iraq War veteran Chris Canada, right, stands among debris resting on a bridge in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Mayor Peter O’Leary, right, and town administrator Stephen Duncan confer over papers outside the volunteer fire department in Chimney Rock Village, N.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen. G. Breed)
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Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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An American flag flies half-staff on top of Chimney Rock mountain in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Workers survey damage where a road once existed in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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A road sign sticks in the mud where a road was in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Business are seen in a debris field in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Businesses are seen in a debris field in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Debris covers a field in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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A washed out road is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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The town of Chimney Rock, N.C., is seen after flash flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Volunteer firefighter Ric Thurlby checks messages as Hickory Nut Falls flows above and the ruined town of Chimney Rock Village, N.C., lies below on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
CHIMNEY ROCK VILLAGE, N.C. (AP) — The stone tower that gave this place its name was nearly a half billion years in the making — heated and thrust upward from deep in the Earth, then carved and eroded by wind and water. But in just a few minutes, nature undid most of what it has taken humans a century and a quarter to build in the North Carolina mountain town of Chimney Rock.
“It feels like I was deployed, like, overnight and woke up in … a combat zone,” Iraq War veteran Chris Canada said as a massive twin-propped Chinook helicopter passed over his adopted hometown. “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”
Nearly 400 miles (644 kilometers) from where Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 along Florida’s Big Bend, the hamlet of about 140 souls on the banks of the Broad River has been all but wiped from the map. The backs of restaurants and gift shops that boasted riverfront balconies dangle ominously in mid-air. The Hickory Nut Brewery, opened when Rutherford County went “wet” and started serving alcohol about a decade ago, collapsed on Wednesday, nearly a week after the storm.
The buildings across Main Street, while still standing, are choked with several feet of reddish-brown muck. A sign on the Chimney Sweeps souvenir shop says, “We are open during construction.”
In another section of town, the houses that weren’t swept away perch precariously near the edge of a scoured riverbank. It is where the town’s only suspected death — an elderly woman who refused entreaties to evacuate — occurred.
“Literally, this river has moved,” village administrator Stephen Duncan said as he drove an Associated Press reporter through the dust-blown wreckage of Chimney Rock Village on Wednesday. “We saw a 1,000-year event. A geological event.”
A monster wall of water strikes Chimney Rock hours after making landfall in Florida
About eight hours after Helene made landfall in Florida, Chimney Rock volunteer firefighter John Payne was responding to a possible gas leak when he noticed water spilling over US 64/74, the main road into town. It was just after 7 a.m.
“The actual hurricane hadn’t even come through and hit yet,” he said.
Payne, 32, who’s lived in this valley his entire life, aborted the call and rushed back up the hill to the fire station, which was moved to higher ground following a devastating 1996 flood. Former chief Joseph “Buck” Meliski, who worked that earlier flood, scoffed.
“There’s no way it’s hitting that early,” Payne recalled the older man saying.
But when Payne showed him a video he’d just shot — of water topping the bridge to the Hickory Nut Falls Family Campground — the former chief’s jaw dropped.
“We’re in for it, boys,” Meliski told Payne and the half dozen or so others gathered there.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them began shaking — like the temblors that sometimes rock the valley, but much stronger. By then, muddy water was seeping under the back wall of the firehouse. Payne looked down and saw what he estimated to be a 30-foot-high (nine-meter-high) wall of water, tossing car-sized boulders as it raced toward the town. It appeared as if the wave was devouring houses, then spitting them out.
“It’s not water at that point,” Payne said. “It’s mud, this thick concrete-like material, you know what I mean? And whatever it hits, it’s taking.”
A house hit the bridge from which he’d been filming not 20 minutes earlier. The span just “imploded.” Payne later found its steel beams “bent in horseshoe shapes around boulders.”
At the firehouse, some business owners among the group began “crying hysterically,” Payne said. Others just stood in mute disbelief. The volunteers lost communications during the storm. But when the winds finally began to quiet down around 11 a.m., Payne said, the radios began “blowing up with calls.”
Workers survey damage where a road once existed in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Scenic Lake Lure becomes a wet pit of rubble
The pieces of what had been Chimney Rock Village were now on their way to the neighboring town of Lake Lure, which played a starring role as stand-in for a Catskills resort in the 1987 Patrick Swayze summer romance film, “Dirty Dancing.”
Tracy Stevens, 55, a bartender at the Hickory Nut, took refuge at the Lake Lure Inn, where she also worked. She watched as the detritus from Chimney Rock and beyond came pouring into the marina, tossing aside boats and thrusting the metal sections of the floating Town Center Walkway upward like the folds of a map.
“It looked like a toilet bowl flushing,” she said. “I could see cars, tops of houses. It was the craziest.”
A home is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Some of the debris coalesced into a massive jam between the two bridges linking the towns — a utilitarian concrete affair carrying Memorial Highway across the Broad River, and an elegant three-arched span known as the Flowering Bridge.
After 85 years carrying traffic into Chimney Rock, the 1925 viaduct was converted into a verdant walkway festooned with more than 2,000 species of plants. Now partially collapsed, the bridge’s remains are draped in a tangled mass of vines, roots and tree branches.
Some residents see signs of hope amid almost complete destruction of their town
Canada, 43, who co-owns a stage rental and event production company, was at a Charlotte music festival when the storm hit. Returning to uniformed troops and armored personnel carriers kicking up dust in the streets awakened memories of his three combat tours in the Middle East.
“I saw the whole war and I’ve been through many hurricanes,” said Canada, an Army airborne veteran. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Canada and his wife, Barbie, moved here with their two daughters in October 2021 from South Carolina, in part to get away from hurricanes. Barbie had vacationed here as a child, and it was close to the Veterans Administration hospital in Asheville.
As he walked the banks of the Broad on Wednesday, Chris Canada found himself sniffing at the warm air for the telltale odor of death.
And yet, all around are signs of hope.
Payne — who climbs the rock in full gear each Sept. 11 to honor first responders who died in the Twin Towers attacks — was heartened to see members of the New York City Fire Department in his town helping with door-to-door searches.
“We’re more hard-headed than these rocks are,” said Payne, whose day job is as a site coordinator for a fast-food chain. “So, it’s going to take more than this to scare us off and run us out. It’ll be a while, but we’ll be back. Don’t count us out.”
Outside the Mountain Traders shop, someone has leaned a large wooden Sasquatch cutout against a utility pole, the words “Chimney Rock Strong” painted in bright blue.
When park employees cut their way to the top of the mountain and raised the American flag on Monday, Duncan says the people below cheered, and some wept.
“It was spectacular,” he said.
Iraq War veteran Chris Canada, right, stands among debris resting on a bridge in Chimney Rock Village, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Mayor says his little town has the spirit and determination necessary to rebuild
The flag is flying at half staff. But Mayor Peter O’Leary said it’s that spirit that will bring Chimney Rock Village back.
The town’s legacy of hospitality and entrepreneurial spirit dates back to the late 1800s, when a local family began charging visitors 25 cents for a horseback ride up the mountain, according to brief online history by village resident R. J. Wald. It soon became one of North Carolina’s first bona fide tourist attractions.
O’Leary came to town in 1990 to take a job as park manager, before it became part of the state parks system. Two years later, he and his wife opened Bubba O’Leary’s General Store, named for their yellow Labrador retriever.
“Most of these people here, if you look around, almost all of them are from somewhere else,” he said as he stood outside the firehouse, the waters of the 404-foot (123-meter) Hickory Nut Falls gushing forth from the ridge high above. “Why’d they come here? They came here and fell in love with it. It gets ahold of you. …
“It got ahold of me.”
The 1927 portion of the general store has caved in, but O’Leary believes the larger addition built in 2009 is salvageable. Duncan, who drafted the village charter back in 1990, sees this as an opportunity to “take advantage of the new geography” and build a better town. But for some, like innkeeper and restaurateur Nick Sottile, 35, the path forward is hard to see.
When Helene hit, Sottile and wife Kristen were vacationing in the Turks and Caicos Islands — their first break since October 2020, when they opened their Broad River Inn and Stagecoach Pizza Kitchen in what’s believed to be the village’s oldest building.
In photos taken from the street, things looked remarkably intact. But when Sottile returned home and walked around to the river side, his heart sank.
“The back of the building is, like, a whole section of it is gone,” the South Florida native said Friday. “It’s not even safe to go in there right now.”
About all that’s left of the adjacent Chimney Rock Adventure miniature golf course is the sign.
“You can’t even rebuild,” Sottile said. “Because there’s no land.”
Sottile has been hearing horror stories from fellow business owners about denied insurance claims. Without help, he said he has no money to rebuild. But for now, he’s just volunteering with the fire department and trying not to think too far into the future.
“This is a small town, but this is, this is HOME,” he said. “Everybody helps everybody, and I know we’ll get through this. I know we’ll rebuild. I’m just praying that we can rebuild with US here to see it.”
___
AP National Writer Tim Sullivan contributed from Minneapolis.
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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