My name is Jay-Paul Thibault. I'm from Burnsville, NC, and I appreciate the support of all of my friends, family, and so many people who have helped (many without even knowing who I am).

For a long time, I took this post and video down because of FEMA regulations. Any funds I received here, associated with the storm, would be repossessed by them for any FEMA payments I was legally entitled to.

I have been trying to get help for 16 months now, and although I will continue to try and get the help I am legally entitled to. It does not look like I will ever get all of those funds.

It has been a VERY long 16 months, and I regret not posting more videos to show everyone what happened. It has taken too much out of me to edit the videos, and I am unwilling to let anyone else process them.

In short, I still do not have access to what remains of my house. I have been trying to get a bridge built, but I have yet to get an engineer to the property to start the process.

There are over 900 destroyed bridges in the area, a limited number of engineers, and a lot of waiting is required.

For everyone who has already donated, I am extremely grateful!

To show my appreciation, if you make a donation (of any size), I would like to make you a special Hurricane Helene Glass Art Piece. None of these have been made. My entire house, studio, bridge, and 20+ years of my glass art, equipment, supplies, and memories were all swept away on Friday, September 27, 2024.

I have been dealing with this for months and have been unable/unwilling/too painful to look at the videos. My bridge was destroyed. The reinforced concrete columns, measuring 10' x 2' x 22', anchored to the riverbed, were torn up and are now gone. I had a trailer with 8,000 pounds of glass in it (you can see it in the video) that we found more than a month later, embedded in a state bridge, thirty feet up from the river, squished like an aluminum can.

One of my goats was never found, and my pickup truck was destroyed.

Hurricane Hellene was a major "reset" event in which almost everything physical I possessed was destroyed.

I am still trying to get back on my property. I was building an art school focusing on glass, metal, and wood. I am looking for help in getting this studio/school back up within three years.

Two teams of engineers will come over to decide where the bridge will go...I used to have a 165' bridge; the chasm is now 280' due to the storm erosion...and where the house and studio will go, well away from the river and mudslides, when I rebuild.

Because of the video I posted, I have been interviewed, or have been shown on TV, 23 times (that I know of). I am in one movie (unpaid), https://scarsonthemountain.com/lp/, and a National Geographic special, both coming out this spring.

For those of you wondering, yes, I had insurance; no, it didn't pay anything.

I have been trying to explain how big the surge was, and it is hard, even for me, to comprehend the size of this disaster. But I'll try… the flood in 1977 (considered the biggest until Helene) was a foot or so under my bridge, about a 22' surge. With Hurricane Helene, there was an additional 20' of water. When you see me on the roof of the fire station, the water is approximately 42' above the regular level. I lost ¾ of an acre of land where my house used to be. We later looked for anything, and although we had found some tools, we only found one glass ornament out of the 800+ pieces I had made and was going to sell in the gallery I was building.

When asked to explain how I felt, the best answer is simply surreal. I was two weeks away from finishing 23 months of work on my house and studio. I am immensely grateful to my family, friends, coworkers, and strangers who have helped me and thousands of others during this time. What has kept me going is knowing that there are people like you that will help a stranger and I am grateful for that and 'am looking for the day when I will be stable enough to give back what has been given to me by helping others.

There are many, many more details. I am going to begin posting my videos on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/JayPaulThibault . Any support, from subscribing to my channel to purchasing my art https://hand-blown-glass.com/ , would be greatly appreciated.

I wish you and your families the best and hope you all have a safe and successful 2026!

Jay-Paul Thibault

P.S. This isn't just a need for money. Here is a list of things I need to either buy or borrow. If anyone is able to loan/donate these large ticket items, it would be amazing!

These are just a few. Here is a link to my glass site, which offers a more comprehensive list and video links explaining why the items are needed.

https://hand-blown-glass.com/hurricane-helene