This past Friday morning 9/27/2024, Tropical Storm Helene dumped over 20" of rain in some areas. The massive amounts of rain in such a short time period caused many creeks, rivers, and lakes to overflow. This caused massive flooding and destruction in many areas of the North Carolina Mountains.
The storm was not selective, affecting most cities and towns throughout Western NC, Georgia and southwest Virginia.
10s of thousands were without power, cell phone service was disrupted and many people were stranded. While nothing like many of our neighbors, we were affected as well as we are in Haywood county near Maggie Valley and Waynesville, NC.
We want to help and we know you do as well from all the inquires we've received in our Facebook Groups (Blue Ridge Mountain Life and Maggie Valley and Waynesville Life).
This page will tell you how you can help.
Updated: 10/31/2024 - We are no longer accepting donations to our funds, and all money has been used to purchase supplies or donated to assist those affected by the flooding. Additional options for donating have been added to our list.
How to help victims of Hurricane Helene
Over the past few days, workers have made an amazing amount of progress on communications, power, gas, food, and necessary supplies. How much progress is really dependent on the location.
Some locations here in Western NC had very little impact from the store, some moderate impact, and some areas are literally devastated. You can learn more about the Hurricane and its impact on Western NC in our Hurricane Helene article.
Help can be provided in a number of ways:
- Financial Donations
- Donating Supplies - Supply donations are no longer being accepted in most areas.
- Donating your time.
Financial Donations
There are many ways to donate financially and assisting flooding victims in Western NC. We have a fund for our local area of Haywood County, which includes Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Canton and surrounding areas. You can learn more about our fund below.
Of course, larger organizations are collecting money and local churches. Here is a credible list of places you can donate besides our assistance fund:
- United Way - They have local chapters so you can better control where your donations go, for example, United Way of Haywood County and Asheville and Buncombe County.
- Samaritan's Purse
- Red Cross
- Salvation Army
- The Cajun Navy
- North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund
- GoFundMe Hurricane Helene Hub
- Aid Across Western NC
There are many others as well, depending on where and how you would like your donations to be handled.
Our Helene Assistance Fund
UPDATE: 10/28/2024 - We are no longer accepting donations to our fund. All the money donated has been used to purchase supplies, feed affected families, and to help clean and rebuild homes. Thank you SO much for generosity. Words can just not convey our thanks enough. If you wish to donate, please do so using the links above.
Our Helene assistance fund is currently directly funds into the Haywood County community, including Maggie Valley, Waynesville and Canton North Carolina.
Initial funds were used to help support feeding the community through Ben's Backdraft BBQ. However, there was little interest initially from storm victims for hot meals. The focus has been moved to feeding first responders and linemen.
This week we learned of other food trucks providing free meals, and donated funds to assist with providing meals, details below!
Currently, our funds are primarily being used to purchase needed supplies for local distribution centers in Haywood County. We are looking to work with other areas in need and will have updates soon on that.
10/11/2024
We were busy this week travelling around to the various supply/donation centers, seeing what were their immediate needs, then heading out to get what was needed. We additionally assisted the supply centers with loading and unloading and organizing supplies.
Feeding people
Many food trucks are providing free meals to flooding victims. We gave a donation to Dina's Tacos here in Waynesville, NC, to help them provide food in Clyde NC on Saturday 10/12. We also donated to 6 Pigs BBQ who are travelling around to different affected areas and serving free hot meals as well.
Chainsaws for soldiers
While in Lowes picking on some supplies, we ran into 3 US Army Soldiers buying chainsaws. After talking with them, we learned they were buying them out of their own pockets to assist a family that was trapped in their home due to fallen trees. They said they were wearing out the chainsaws, helping cut trees. We used your donated funds to buy them 3 new chainsaws, chain oil, and fuel. They told us to say thank you.
Much needed supplies
Your donations continue to help provide much needed supplies to those affected by the hurricane and are helping to feed people as well. Many have lost their homes, had damage to their homes, or are impacted due to not being able to work. As a result, they are financially strapped, and your donations are making a significant difference! Thank you.
Here are some photos of some of the items we purchased this week and were distributed to supply centers in Canton NC, Waynesville NC, and Maggie Valley NC.
10/8/2024
This week and last week were spent traveling around to the different supply stations, including Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Canton and Crusco NC. Jenn and I would talk to the staff, determine what was most needed, and go get it, using funds you generously donated.
We have literally spent every day this week doing that, and will continue to do so. The folks at Lowes, Walmart, and Ingles have come to know us well and have been incredibly helpful.
Using your funds this past week, we have purchased: Baby supplies, cleaning products and supplies, dehumidifiers, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, paper plates, plastic utensils, paper towels, toilet paper, and much more.
These are all products that the supply centers were running low on, or were completely out of.
We will continue to be good stewards of your donated funds, and direct them directly into the community. These photos are shared so you can see we what we are doing with YOUR money.
10/1/2024
This week we have purchased and delivered cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, dish detergent, water, and pet food. We will be talking to the supply centers daily to determine their needs and purchase supplies. See photos above.
We continue to work with local organizations on their financial needs, and will allocate funds locally as appropriate to provide direct assistance to people in need.
Please know that the funds will go directly to assisting flood victims and quickly.
ALL funds will go directly to helping flood victims. You have our word on this.
