Join Us to Rebuild the Alvarado Family's Life

Meet the beautiful Alvarado family-Juan, Sarah, and three amazing children, Moses (5), Silas (3), and Adaleine (16 mths). They are some of my favorite people in the world. My name is Arwyn Jackson, and I am organizing this GoFundMe from Massachusetts on their behalf.

You would not believe the year they've had--culminating in weathering Hurricane Helene at the end of September. They live in the Swannanoa area of Asheville, NC, one of the areas hardest hit by the hurricane. While they all survived the storm and flood, their property and home did not.

What was a calm, pleasant creek in their backyard turned into a torrent of water that washed out the entire yard and all surrounding property making it unrecognizable. The storm caused water to pour down the mountain ridge from multiple routes creating a 10 foot rise in the creek behind their home quickly eroding the yard and bringing roaring, rushing waves against the house. The house filled with water; anything near and around it washed away (including their HVAC unit and septic ripped from the house by winds--found later destroyed in their neighbor's yard). They escaped to higher ground while watching the total destruction of the life they had been building in NC.

The below video shows a fraction of the water rushing around their home as it was receding.

One year ago they purchased their new home in Asheville, NC. A beautiful property that they renovated to accommodate their recently expanding family with newborn Adaleine. The property included a second unit they were able to fix up to rent as an Airbnb to assist with the mortgage payments.

A month after moving in, Silas, the middle Alvarado child, became sick and the local doctors couldn't figure out what he had or how to treat him. He got worse and worse until he had to be air-lifted to Boston Children's Hospital for treatment for a dangerous and rare illness. This required several months of travel and focused care, but Silas (now with a residual permanent heart condition) and the family came through it. However, it left them burdened with many uninsured expenses, prescriptions, etc.

With all of these competing priorities, the Alvarados finally finished the renovations on their home and property this summer!

And now, it's all gone.

Their Airbnb, meant to help pay for the property, is useless; there are no estimates as to when power and water are coming back to the area, and tourism, of course, is now at a standstill. The main floor of their home needed to be gutted to the studs to *hopefully* stop the spread of mold in the house. Mold removal and prevention will continue for an extended unpredictable time. They have worked for the past week to reroute the river away from the house.

Homeowners insurance? Unfortunately, due to several loopholes, homeowners insurance will not cover anything. The Alvarados, like everyone else in their mountain community, did not have additional flood insurance as there was no threatening flood plain and most were advised they certainly would not need it.

FEMA? While they have been helpful there is a cap on provided funds which is only a "drop in the bucket" to help restore their home and life. In addition, the red tape and hoops to jump through make it complicated and difficult.

The Alvarados need our help NOW! While they still have each other, which is the most important thing, they have lost everything else.

The $25,000 goal posted here is not what they actually need, but it's a start! We'll keep updating the goal as we understand more details of exactly what will be needed for recovery. The money will be used for temporary housing, for bills, for demolition, for cleaning, for renovation, for construction, and for moving dirt to make the property and house safe again.

Let's double or triple that goal. We love them and they need it.