Help Rebuild Our Community After Hurricane Helene

My name is Cameron Ogden-Fung, and I’m from Asheville, NC. I’m raising funds for dear friends in Black Mountain, NC whose lives were turned upside down during Hurricane Helene. While they’re focused on navigating the immediate aftermath, I'm here to support them by helping to fund the immense clean-up and rebuilding efforts that have just begun.

This is footage of their land during the hurricane. Everything below got washed away. All roads and bridges are gone.

Here's their story...

Our lives changed overnight when Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding that devastated our mountain community. The 20-foot wide creek swelled into a raging river, washing away bridges, roads, our lands, homes, personal belongings, and most tragically, neighbors and friends. It left behind a scar that runs much deeper than the 100-foot wide chasm where our road used to be. Many homes were washed away completely, and those of us who remain are faced with a monumental task of cleaning up and rebuilding.

But we haven’t lost hope.

Despite the challenges, we feel blessed to be safe and to witness the love, strength, and perseverance of our community as we come together. Generous grading companies have been volunteering their machinery and time to create temporary dirt roads to reconnect the neighborhood, and their efforts are nothing short of heroic. However, they can only continue with our support.

This is where we need your help.

We’re raising funds to continue cleaning up and rebuilding the entire community. These funds will go to paying the grading companies that stepped in immediately in the first days after the storm, giving us a lifeline when no other aid could reach us. It will cover the costs of rebuilding access to homes along Lower Flat Creek, making it possible for families to return. It will cover materials needed to install culverts, build bridges, repair essential plumbing, and get our homes back to being livable. It’s a fraction of what’s truly needed, but it’s a start, and it's going to be a long journey to repair.

While we’re grateful for any government relief that may come, these funds take time to reach the communities in need and are often earmarked for other types of support. We can’t afford to wait. Every day without proper access delays rebuilding efforts and puts families’ safety and livelihoods at risk. The first and most important task is to restore accessibility and repair basic infrastructure so our community can move forward.

Your donation, no matter the size, will be a crucial part of rebuilding our community.

By donating, you’re making it possible for families to rebuild, reconnect, and restore a sense of normalcy.

We know that times are tough for everyone right now, and even if you can’t give, please share our story. Help us amplify the voices of those in need and spread the word.

Thank you for standing with us.

With immense gratitude,

Rubina and Gabriel

Donations for this fundraiser will go directly to beneficiaries Gabriel Reich and his wife Rubina Beg.

Funds be used to