Please Help our Asheville Family!

You can see the road to Chrystal Falls which I mention in this story in the first two clips. Yes, that is a road, not a waterfall.

My husband and I live near beautiful Asheville NC in the town of Fairview. We spent a few terrifying days not knowing if loved ones including our daughter were dead or alive, with a road cut off to the outside world and no power, water, or cell service.

Thank God, the locals were able to bring their heavy equipment and make the road passable and we were able to evacuate to Charlotte.

We are now raising money for individual friends, family, and strangers who need help in this crucial week where there is still no running water or electricity. We are also bringing supplies to our local fire department and supporting local charities that we personally know and have worked with.

Once immediate needs are met, if there are extra funds, we are hoping to help rebuild the lives of a few of our neighbors.

Let me tell you about our neighbor Kurt. He is 72 years old, a retired nurse and life long Big Brother in the Big Brother program. He has never been married, doesn’t have kids, and lost his beloved brother last year.

He recently endured a spinal tap and was awaiting brain surgery.

Instead of being immersed in loneliness, he has adopted our neighborhood as family and does so much for us all.

Throughout this summer in the heat, he often worked for hours a day with chainsaw to create a path from his house (on a very high hill above our cabin in a community called Chrystal Falls) to ours. Justin helped too. They were building this so that our family could walk his ridge line to see the mountains and the sunsets.

Kurt spent his entire life savings building a beautiful Deltek home. When the Hurricane hit, although his house was still standing and intact, the road to his house (and many other beloved neighbors) was completely destroyed. It basically looked like a huge waterfall rather than a road. This is a private road that would not be able to be helped by the county. None of these neighbors are able to get to their houses now to live in.

The only way Kurt was able to get out was by coming down the steep walking path he made for us. It ended up being the route the fire department used to make sure everyone in the community was still alive.

What an incredible lesson: When you do something selfless for others, sometimes it helps rescue you as well.

I was able to talk to Kurt yesterday. We were able to get him gas money to get to the airport, where he will be staying with his former sister in law in Florida. With tears as I talked to him, I said that I was praying that his road would be fixed some day and we could be neighbors again. (It is a private road that would be very difficult to fix and the county can't do anything about it.)

We are raising funds for immediate needs in our neighborhood and other friends and even strangers who need help in Asheville and Fairview like Kurt.

We have already raised nearly Over $8000 in three days (the bright spot to a very horrible week!) Here are some of the ways we've been able to help:

-$800 to a single father who needed to take his girls to safety.

-Feed to save a dear friends’ farm which is her livelihood, along with many supplies to her community that is somewhat trapped. -Gas distributed to several neighbors who need to evacuate

-A generator and cash for groceries to more people including my brother’s family.

-After seeing a Facebook post of a stranger who desperately needed money. I decided to Venmo her $300. When I went to check if it went through, I saw that a friend had just sent ME $300 to give away to someone. Wow!

-$400 to my scholarship student Jkobe's grandma as all her food rotted and she has none left.

- A generator for my own family so we can move back in sooner so we can still work.

I feel somewhat helpless with so much devastation around us. But if we could help this small pocket of people that we love it would mean the world to me.

Thank you so much, my friends and family. I am grateful for you now more than ever.

Kate and Justin Krause

(This is a picture of a house on Chrystal Falls, and you can see how high it is above our house in the valley below and why it's so impossible to get to with no road.)