October 1, 2024
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — As counties in western North Carolina and surrounding areas continue to grapple with unprecedented devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, N.C. Baptist disaster response volunteers are partnering with churches to assist local residents with the long journey of recovery.
As of Monday, Sept. 30, N.C. Baptists on Mission has deployed hundreds of volunteers to assist with response efforts, with hundreds more expected to arrive in the coming days. Tom Beam, disaster response coordinator with Baptists on Mission, said that the needs are “overwhelming” and will require a coordinated, widespread response from churches.
Hurricane Helene made landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast late Thursday, Sept. 26, as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 140mph and wind gusts even higher. As the storm moved quickly northward, Helene brought damaging winds across Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee along with unprecedented rainfall and flooding on Friday, Sept. 27, even while weakening to a tropical storm.
The storm washed out roads, knocked out power and crippled phone service throughout the western North Carolina, limiting access to those in need. N.C. Department of Transportation officials said hundreds of road issues remain and travel in western North Carolina should be limited to emergencies only. As of Sunday, Sept. 29, more than 500,000 customers across the region remained without power, down from a peak of about 1 million.
“Water, electricity, cell phone, internet, road closures, bridges out — the amount of need is a huge roadblock,” Beam said. “Every county is begging for help.”
N.C. Baptists on Mission is one of several organizations assisting the state and local government officials in the response to the storm.
“People are desperate for help — and we are pushing to get it to them,” N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “Please know that we are sending resources, and coordinating closely with local governments, first responders, state and federal partners, and volunteer organizations to help those impacted by this tragic storm. This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response.”
N.C. Baptists on Mission began a feeding operation at First Baptist Church of Boone on Sunday, with volunteers from the local community and nearby Appalachian State University helping serve hot meals in drive-thru and walk-up lines. Additional feeding sites in Arden and Marion are providing meals to be distributed by the American Red Cross.
“When you have devastation like this, obviously there’s a lot of opportunity to minister to the community that God put you in,” said Bruce Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Church, a multisite congregation in western North Carolina. “Certainly that’s going to be the case as a church and a conglomeration of churches.”
Biltmore Church has been distributing water and ice to residents at its Arden campus and providing updates about the distributions on the church’s Facebook page.
“The hard part is just getting stuff here at this point,” Frank said.
Churches and local Baptist associations from across the state spent the weekend collecting cases of water and delivering those to churches and distribution sites across the region.
Frank said he was expecting more water to be delivered to the church on Monday (Sept. 30).
News accounts, photos and videos from the weekend showed entire towns being washed away, entire chunks of roads and highways missing, and vehicles and dumpsters floating down flooded streets.
“People lost homes, cars, businesses,” Frank said. “Nobody got left unscathed. It’s a pretty widespread path of destruction that we haven’t seen before regarding the rain and the wind and the flooding and the trees down…. I don’t think anybody in these parts has seen this kind of weather element in our lifetime.”
Frank said he learned on Sunday that an entire family in his congregation all perished in a flood.
In Buncombe County alone, where Biltmore’s Arden campus is located, there have been more than 30 confirmed deaths, according to local news reports. Local and state officials say they expect the death toll to rise as search and rescue operations continue.
Justin Alexander, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, said some members of his church were still trapped in their homes as of Sunday (Sept. 29).
“We’ve got church members that are trapped (and) cannot get out of their houses right now,” Alexander said in a video posted to social media. “We’ve got full communities that are underwater, that their homes are completely destroyed, and so we’re trying to figure out how we here at First Baptist can serve our entire community.”
First Baptist Hendersonville was also collecting water, hygiene products, non-perishable food items and baby supplies over the weekend to serve as a distribution center in the community.
N.C. Baptists on Mission has also set up multiple recovery sites throughout the region to assess damage and begin the long process of assisting area residents.
According to Beam, recovery efforts in western North Carolina will have an “indefinite” timeline.
“It’s going to be a long time — months to years,” Beam said. “I don’t anticipate it going away anytime soon.”
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This story first appeared in The Biblical Recorder.
