Rebuilding Hope: Support the Leepers after Hurricane Helene

The extreme rain event ending with Hurricane Helene on September 27th, 2024 was not only historic by any measure (rainfall, river heights), but also life altering for my family. As I was outside cooking breakfast, the storm drain to the left of our house started to flood our street in seconds. Kelli and I quickly grabbed our keys, and went to move our vehicles. Before we could get down the road, the storm drain to the right of our house flooded as well. It wasn't super deep yet, so we drove through so that we could save our vehicles. We walked back, grabbed the kids, turned off the grill, and then headed to a find a place to stay that evening. The next time I saw my home it was via a kayak.

Becoming homeless overnight, we relied on friends to give us shelter as we began the painful process of gutting our home. Over the next three weeks we became skilled at ripping our house apart using saw-saws, oscillating tools and crowbars. When in doubt, throw it out, was the motto. We had to essentially remove anything that was touching the floor. We filled over three dumpsters full of the very things that made our house a home.

We have since moved back into our upstairs (~800sqft) and have begun the process of rebuilding. Estimates to rebuild exceed the support from FEMA and whats in our life savings by over $15K. This is even with planning to do some of the work ourselves (painting, installing flooring, and cabinets). We had a church group who agreed to do our drywall for free, but we just found out that they will not be able to finish the taping/mudding, which is just another added expense. With that and the Small Business Administration out of money to give disaster loans, we have decided to try a GoFundMe page before tapping into our retirement accounts.

Hurricane Helene may have come, wreaked havoc, and left, but she is far from gone. We are now left to put the pieces back together. The feeling of cold, concrete floors have become our new normal until we can finish rebuilding. With the good Lord's help and guidance, we can and will get through this. It may be day-by-day, or minute-by-minute, but we will be stronger at the end of this. That said, the love, help, and support we have received from family, friends, and even strangers already has been very humbling! Please keep the prayers coming! We can definitely feel them!