Restore Hope for Dave and His Dogs

My name is Aislinn, I was born in Asheville and have lived the past 10 years in Western North Carolina. I am writing this on behalf of my Uncle Dave as the experience is too traumatic for him to write this himself. He has lived in WNC as long as I have been alive. At the time of this devastating natural disaster, he was living in Burnsville. As everyone knows, Hurricane Helene has absolutely destroyed the mountains of Western North Carolina and Tennessee. No one could have seen this kind of disaster happening in our beautiful backyard. We had very little time to prepare, our structures are not built to withstand these conditions like the ones on the coast. Friday morning at 6 am my uncle watched the water rise on the Toe River to the 2nd story of his home. The rain kept coming up and around 11:45 Am that morning his house was washed down the river. He was narrowly able to escape to higher ground with his life and his two dogs. The water rose another 7 feet trapping them in the car rammed up a creek bed to escape the rising turmoil. He in fear and shock watching not only his entire life float down that river but his neighbor and friends has well. Tragically, he was unable to escape. My uncle Dave lives a very minimalist life style. Even with nothing but the clothes on his back he would still

take his shirt off and give it to someone else in need. That is why I am writing this. He has no insurance and nothing left but his life & his two dogs Willie & Beezaa. There are so many in our community who are in very similar situations, so please if you are able to donate to this cause or any others it will greatly help our community. I want to try to raise as much money as possible to help get him back on his feet. The funds will be used to provide him with basic necessities as well as trying to find him a new place to life and replace as many belongings as possible. It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to rebuild his life so every little bit counts. Thank you all for reading his story.