Help Restore Hope in NC After Hurricane Helene's Impact

As everyone by now knows, Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina a week ago (Sept. 27th), dumping about 22 inches of rain within 24 hours. For lack of a better word, the destruction has been apocalyptic. The area is decimated and will take a long time to recover. More than 200 souls have been lost thus far. Roads are gone. Multitudes have lost their homes, businesses, every stitch of clothing, virtually everything they owned. And of course who would ever think they needed flood insurance, 300 miles from the coast?

Both of our grown children, and our son-in-law live in Black Mountain, and thankfully are alive, and unhurt, and amazingly, with property intact. They've been working around the clock to help others, removing fallen trees, debris and doing virtually whatever they can, to help whomever. Electricity is slowly coming back, but most won't have water for at least a month.

We will be traveling there this week to help, but are still not sure of exactly what we’ll be needing to bring for supplies. I'm sorry to be so vague, it's only that everything is in such a state of flux. At this point, instead of collecting items (which we're not sure about), we're hoping to gather a monetary fund within the next several days, so that prior to driving down to N. Carolina, we have funds to secure what is needed most at that time. We're hoping to pull a trailer with us which will allow distribution of many necessary items to those in such desperate need. Any amount would be so incredibly appreciated. Thank you so very much.