Help Christine and Edwin Rebuild Their Home After Helene

Christine and Edwin lived on the Swannanoa River when Helene hit and destroyed their home. This is their story and a call for help from their community:

A little over a year ago Edwin and I (Christine) purchased our first house. We worked hard to make it a home, we painted the walls, planted gardens and filled it with personal touches. When hurricane Helene hit it filled our home with water and left literal tons of mud in its wake. Our gardens are gone, the deck we had built only 4 months ago is destroyed, our large appliances we purchased new a year ago are unsalvageable, our furniture is all ruined, the wall and floors of our home are mold infested. We have spent every free moment over the last month driving hours and hours to get back to Asheville to gut our home. It’s been exhausting work both physically and emotionally, ripping out drywall and hauling all of our broken and waterlogged furniture and precious belongings out to the curb.

The next step in the process will be to begin repairs so we can move back into our home. We will need electric work done, plumbing fixed, new installation and drywall, new flooring (rip to our beautiful hardwood floors), and our HVAC repaired. Luckily, FEMA did help get us closer to fixing our home, however insurance has denied all claims and we are still in need of tens of thousands of dollars to do repairs and refurnish.

Some things we are thankful for:

Many of our family and friends have been helping us moving heavy items and do demo on house which has been HUGE. Through this process we have learned how to remove drywall and rip out floors and we are feeling quite handy.

Edwin and I both still have jobs since we work remotely and I know many in WNC are not as lucky. The agency I work for has been hugely supportive by granting emergency PTO and allowing for a flexible schedule as we work to save our home.

Last but certainly not least we have a place to stay with our cat Zuri at Edwin’s parents house. Our house will not be liveable for many months and we would not be able to afford rent and our mortgage so I’m not sure what we would do without this lifeline. Having a cozy home with great company and the support of family has been everything.

We never dreamed that we would find ourselves in this position and were hoping we would not need to ask for financial help but now that the dust has settled we realized that we do need help. We understand that a lot of people in our community are in need so it means the world that you would consider donating to help us get back in our home and back on our feet.