Recap: DAY TWO, Part 3 - Delivering More Supplies / Meeting Families

 Thursday 10/17/2024 - Part 3

After dropping the bottled water off at the Ingles Market in Black Mountain, we headed to Swannanoa, NC. We were delivering generators and other needed supplies to families in a mobile home park, that was just destroyed by the flooding of Hurricane Helene, and a couple of other homes.

This is what we saw when we turned into the neighborhood:

Those piles of debris are essentially all of the belongings of the residents. Most of them lost absolutely everything. Most of the mobile homes were so badly damaged that they've been gutted down to the floor trusses. 

I spoke with one woman who explained what happened the day of the storm. She said that it was just raining, her kids were outside playing in the rain. All of the sudden the fire department knocked on their door and told them they needed to evacuate right away. They told them to go to a nearby middle school (it was right behind the mobile home park, so people could just run there, they didn't need to try to drive or get a ride). The park sat in a bit of a valley, so the middle school was on higher ground - not much higher ground - but a bit. This woman described the water as rising to a level that it was halfway up her front door - and her front door already sat off the ground at least 4 feet. So the water had to have been somewhere around 6 feet or higher. This is what her home looks like now:

These families didn't have flood insurance - they never would've thought they'd need it. So they will not receive any compensation from insurance to replace their homes and belongings. They will rebuild their mobile homes and are, essentially, starting from scratch. The generators we were delivering to this neighborhood were needed to operate tools and begin the clean up and repairs; in addition to everyday necessities like charging their phones, running nebulizers for children with asthma, and providing light. 

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While some of our team was unloading, gassing up, oiling, and getting the generators ready, the rest of us were able to spend some time with the kids we'd met. 

Kristy had brought a big mesh bag full of Squishmallows and other stuffed animals - hoping she'd meet some children to give them to and spread a little joy. We definitely found some kiddos in this park and they were so excited to be given stuffed animals, wiffle ball/bat sets (donated by Junga's Ace), and children's books (donated by Keystone Church). 

Seeing those little faces light up was most definitely a highlight of our day. 

That one little guy was searching HARD for Chase, from Paw Patrol...and he found him! ❤

Handmade stocking hats were also a huge hit!

These kids have no idea what has happened - they just know that all of their "stuff" is gone, that their parents are sad, and that things aren't the same. 

We had a couple more addresses to visit, to deliver generators, but those residents had reached out to the Mountain Rescue NC Team and offered to meet us at the middle school (yes, the same one that families fled to for safety during the storm), to make it easier for us, since we were right in that area already.

Unfortunately, we learned a valuable lesson when we met them in that parking lot. We realized that they were scamming us. Their stories kept changing on why they needed the generators, who they needed them for, others who were in need, etc. After much debate between the Mountain Rescue NC Team, they decided not to give them any additional generators (one had already been loaded into their car). As sad and disheartening as it was to the Mountain Rescue NC Team, and our Team, there are always going to be people that want to take advantage after a tragedy and it was a good reminder of that. 

We took that frustration and anger and put it to good use as strength and determination as we got on the road and headed to our final mission of the day. That mission would take us north, nearly 60 miles...the last mile of which was on a narrow, damaged (some areas just completely gone), road - with the North Toe River flowing about 25' below directly on our right. It looked a little like this:

Oh, did I mention it was dark, too?! 

DAY TWO, Part 4 will drop soon!