A couple weeks ago, I traveled with 9 other volunteers from Greater Kansas City to Burnsville, Yancey County, North Carolina, to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Although it has been over 4 months since the area of Western NC and Eastern Tennessee was hit with what could be called a 1,000 year rain storm, one can hardly identify much progress in bringing the community back to a semblance of normality.
At this time, Yancey County is officially the second hardest hit county in North Carolina (after Buncombe County) with at least 10 deaths directly caused by the flooding. The ground had already been saturated with 6 to 8 inches of rain during the prior week. Then the hurricane dumped another 12 to 24 inches of rain in a few hours. Busick, a hamlet nearest Mt. Mitchell State Park recorded over 31 inches.
When you are located in the mountains in a county of average elevation over 3,000’, you also do not have any flood insurance. Therefore, long term recovery for most folks depends upon donated materials and the free labor of organizations such as Baptists on Mission (the NC Baptist Convention’s arm), Samaritan’s Purse, The Salvation Army, and other church relief organizations.
While the locals continue their regular work as best they can, volunteers from areas as far away as Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas have become the boots on the ground. They are clearing away the horrendous amounts of debris still clogging up yards, pastures, streams, and rivers in Phase 1. Phase 2 consists of reconstructing salvageable homes and building completely new homes from the ground up—all free of charge to the flood victims.
We stayed in the Yancey County Rebuild Center of NC Baptists on Mission, a closed nursing home facility. The NC Baptists purchased it and are gradually improving its conditions as the volunteers concentrate on meeting the several thousand requests for help from area residents.
The water service was intermittent, but most days we could count on a hot shower either inside or in one of the Shower Trailers brought in for the purpose. We slept on bunk beds with sleeping bags. But we enjoyed hot breakfast and dinner meals and took PB&J or cold cut sandwiches with us for lunch. Not surprisingly, residents receiving help are incredibly amazed and grateful that volunteers, mostly over 60 years of age, would spend their own time and money to help strangers.
A little research reminded me that Eastern NC was ravaged by Hurricane Florence in 2018. The Baptists on Mission provided over 1,057,000 hot meals to victims and volunteers from 10 sites. They were also still building free homes for victims of that catastrophe 6 years later from three rebuilding centers and had completed over 5,800.
North Carolinians’ efforts do not stop at its border. From 2010 through 2014, they sent over 1,500 rebuilding and medical volunteers to Haiti following its devastating earthquakes. Other work is ongoing in Guatemala.
Although I am spotlighting North Carolina today, every state is organized for these relief efforts. Missouri Baptists are sending volunteers almost every week to Yancey County and will do so for months to come. For more information, consult https://modr.org. There is a training opportunity on March 7-8 in Raymore for our area.
Volunteers must be vetted with a law enforcement background check and a member in good standing of a Church in the Missouri Baptist Convention. However, Samaritans Purse and other organizations have their own safeguards and training available. Being a fairly lousy golfer after decades of dabbling with it, I find much greater satisfaction serving those whose lives have been upended by spending what otherwise would be vacation periods.
When we have such an affluent society, God gives great grace through those who are willing to serve others. If I were a betting person, I would bet you would enjoy this kind of service too. (By the way, some of our volunteers from NC traveled directly to Los Angeles to perform services known as ash-out. I don’t have a report from them yet but of course will keep you posted!)
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The advice is general in nature and not intended for specific situations)