A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to join a number of individuals from Northway Community Church as we traveled to the Black Mountains of North Carolina to help with recovery efforts, still very much needed, as a result of the Hurricane Helene that tore through that secluded area in Western Carolina in September of 2024. Hurricane Helene devastated Black Mountain, NC, causing widespread flooding, damage to homes, and significant infrastructure damage, including the loss of roads, bridges, and utility services.
Our trip south began on March 9, 2025, a full 6 months after the devastation occurred. Anticipation as to what we might find and be expected to actually do there ran high as we hit the road for the 9-hour ride south.
NCC had coordinated with Operation Blessing, an international Evangelical Christian organization with a mission to demonstrate God’s love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and worldwide.
I arrived at the “compound” on Monday, while the others in our party rolled in on Sunday and got quickly acclimated to the sparse living arrangements.
While I don’t feel I live extravagantly, going from a house with all the basic amenities, like regular electricity instead of by a generator, running water, indoor plumbing and the like, it was somewhat of a shock to sleep in a trailer with 10 other guys, to have to use the outhouse in the middle of the night when nature calls — which it unfortunately does often anymore, and to shower in trailer shower stalls hoping against hope that the water basin holding the water did not run dry again after you’d just lathered up.
Our short venture into a more basic existence is nothing compared to what the people of Black Mountain and surrounding areas went through, and at the time we visited, were still going through. The devastation was still evident over six months after the hurricane event.
Estimates put the total damage at $11.3 million and likely higher. Roads were still torn up, some buildings still half standing, many still displaced, remnants of the devastation still piled up along the passable roads, waiting for someone to pick them up.
Stories of barely escaping the flood waters and of those who were not so lucky permeated the conversations.
We were tasked with helping a family whose home had been hit by flood waters, first reaching their 12 ft. raised porch, where they huddled until the water kept rising and retreated to their roof until rescue finally came.
The wife actually fell in, and if not for grabbing onto some nearby trees, she would have surely met her fate. Luckily, rescuers got to her in time.
The family was so grateful that one day at noon, they provided our whole team and others with an amazing Mexican food luncheon and could not say thank you enough!
We next traveled deep into the mountains, where a young family, while not hurt by the water, lost some 80 trees surrounding their home from the hurricane winds. The owner said they decided to vacate when the trees started falling but found that a tree had crushed their one car. Turning to their second car, only to find more trees had blocked the driveway. They grabbed their children and ran — he said it was like a sci-fi movie-down — down the driveway and across a field as more trees fell till they got to a neighbor where they could hunker down.
We spent half a day cutting up some of those trees. We were next taken to an area known as the RAD—The River Arts District — where artists and other businesses had taken over an old abandoned industrial park and created a very popular venue for tourists to spend the day. 75% of this area’s economy is based upon tourism, and this devastation has so depleted that source, and it will be years until it’s up and running again.
Being next to the river, stories were told that the wave devastated the buildings and washed all the merchandise out into the raging water.
We were told to start cleaning up, and our first reaction, looking around at the sheer magnitude of the destruction, was, “Where do we start!?” We started with a small section, raking debris, lifting rocks, and finding stuff like hats, records, and an accumulation of merchandise under the coating of dirt. Eventually, that small area looked rather nice, so we moved on, and on, and on.
It was truly a blessing to have this opportunity to help, but it still seems really strange to do a Mission Trip within one’s own country. On my next trip south, I surely plan to stop in that area to hopefully see a much recovered and vibrant community in the Black Hills of North Carolina.
