Help Ursula Rebuild After Helene

Dear friends and family,

On the night of September 27th in Asheville, NC the unprecedented deluge of rain from Helene broke through the foundation of my grandma Ursula’s house, pushing a hill of mud and soil into her basement and destabilizing her home. After the period of immediate emergency response restored electricity and made travel possible, my uncle Jason Powers made an extended visit to do everything he could to clear the debris and move all my grandmother’s belongings from beneath the house to temporary storage.

Now the time has come to rebuild. While Jason and Ursula made so much progress between the immediate aftermath of the disaster and now, redoing and shoring up the house’s foundation will be an extensive and expensive project. FEMA has been helpful in providing both a storage pod for my grandma’s belongings as well as emergency funding for the reconstruction. However, while the amount FEMA disbursed was significant, it is still only a third of what is needed to pay for the rebuild.

Over the past decades, my grandma has dedicated so much of her time and passion to preserving family history and helping others in her community. As a self-proclaimed family historian, she has built an extensive archive of art and textiles created by herself and both her parents, as well as a treasure trove of the childhood belongings of my Uncle Jason and my late father. Not all of these things may be salvageable. She has volunteered at the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Arts Center for as long as I can remember, and preserves and promotes the craft of handweaving by teaching classes at Harvest House Community Center. She is also the historian for the Western North Carolina Handweavers Guild, documenting and sharing the history of a guild she has been a member of for decades.

Ursula has been an important part of the lives of so many people and organizations, and we are eager for her to be able to return to the peace and comfort of her own home and daily routines.

Anything you are able to contribute makes a difference. Our goal is modest in comparison to the cost of construction, but truly, every bit matters. Your thoughtfulness and generosity are truly appreciated in this difficult time. Let’s bring Ursula home!