Leah, Sean, & the Girls Need Our Help

"A catastrophic natural disaster"

"Biblical devastation"

Our cousin Leah lives in western North Carolina with her husband Sean and their girls, Ella, Audrey, and Alaina. They awoke Friday morning to their house shaking. Flooding from Hurricane Helene created a mudslide that has literally wiped their house away from its foundation. Their area is flooded, without power, roads are closed, and there is no cell phone service.

Luckily, Leah, Sean, and the girls are all safe and staying with generous neighbors. They have the ability to drive to a Best Buy which has cell phone service and contact us. Their animals are accounted for and safe.

But the damage is only beginning to be assessed. They will salvage what they can. They will need to rent storage units for anything that is worthy of saving. They will certainly need to buy not only things that make a house comfortable, furniture, dishes, beds, but they are going to need food, clothing, dog and cat food, toiletries.

Leah's brother Todd will drive to NC when the area is accessible and help rebuild, but it's going to take weeks to determine the real devastation Hurricane Helene has wrought, and months for Leah, Sean, Ella, Audrey, and Alaina to rebuild their lives.

I am Lillian, Leah's cousin on our mothers' side (Dee and Kathy). Leah and I both grew up in Holmes County: I am now in Santa Fe, and Leah and her family are in NC. We both love the places we've made our homes, but we also know how hard it is to be away from our family. Providing monetary assistance is one thing I can do from far away, and all the Weisses, Kandels, and Graffs are thankful to anyone who is also able to contribute.