Help Melissa Butler Recover from Total Loss from Helene

Hilary Drake is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hey all, and thanks for your care for those suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. My name is Hilary Drake, I'm a long-time Asheville resident and friend of Melissa, lucky that my home and family were spared. I hope that we can collectively rally around my friend Melissa Butler, who has dedicated her life to serving children as a Special Education teacher, tutor in the Asheville City Schools system, and single mom to her son, Griffin. She had only just recently purchased and moved into her home in Beacon Village, Swannanoa, a short time before Hurricane Helene hit the area, flooded her home up to her roofline, and completely devastated and traumatized her neighborhood. Hers is the neighborhood where a heroic kayaker saved people from their attics with a kayak and an axe, chopping holes in roofs to excavate terrorized neighbors. Melissa recounted how quickly the water rose - there was no time to gather belongings. "You think your house is going to save you," she recounted, but the volume, force and speed of flood waters left her no choice but to abandon home for higher ground with only one of her two cats before it was too late (thankfully, Gigi also survived by staying on a floating mattress that rose to the ceiling). Some folks didn't make it out of Beacon Village, and many Swannanoa residents lost their lives to Helene.

Melissa's home - a total loss - was *not* located in a flood plain. She was *not* required to have flood insurance on the property. Catastrophic rains preceding Helene, followed by the hurricane, and then mechanical dam releases from the North Fork Dam released enough water into the Swannanoa River to swallow her home whole. Without flood insurance, her homeowners insurance company denied her *any* coverage for her catastrophic loss. Its been an incredible stress just to figure out what step to take first in re-building life as she knew it.

Melissa, like so many survivors, is an incredible warrior - somehow placing one foot in front of the other each day - and returned back to her job at my son's elementary school today. Feeling totally "stuck" in temporary housing, she needs us now to rally support around her cause to help her continue to pay a mortgage on an uninhabitable structure while she makes a plan to re-build, avoiding foreclosure which would affect her ability to buy again in the near future. Every contribution, no matter how small, will make a difference and help Melissa and her son piece life back together in this unimaginable time. Please share her story far and wide.