Grassroots organizations are helping rebuild North Carolina communities after Hurricane Helene.
Haywood County North Carolina after Hurricane Helene on October 8, 2024 -- NCDOTcommunications, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
By Damon Orion
Hurricane Helene, which was a Category 4 hurricane, hit on September 26 and claimed around 227 lives as of October 5, 2024. The hurricane is now considered one of the deadliest “of the modern era.” Besides destroying homes, businesses, roads, and bridges, it caused power outages for millions and left countless survivors without food and water.
The hurricane has become a source of conflict and division, particularly concerning the federal government’s response to the catastrophe.
Media outlets like PBS, U.S. News & World Report, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Hurricane Rumor Response page have addressed what National Public Radio (NPR) called, “[r]umors, misinformation and lies” about this issue on October 7. NPR stated that “Republicans, especially former President Donald Trump,” used the storm to attack political opponents on the handling of its aftermath and attempted to manipulate voters by “using misleading math to complain about immigration and foreign aid.”
Reuters—which the GlobalWebIndex listed as the world’s second most trustworthy news source in 2019—stated that FEMA’s flood risk assessments focused only on “rising seas and swelling rivers” without considering “the threat posed by the sort of extreme rainfall brought on by Helene.” While Hurricane Helene survivors with no flood insurance “will be able to apply for up to $30,000 in federal disaster aid, as well as loans from the Small Business Administration,” that amount is “only a fraction of the $250,000 worth of coverage available through the federal flood program,” Reuters reported.
Hurricane survivors have leveled complaints against not just federal, but also local disaster relief efforts. In interviews with NBC News, Asheville residents Devonna Brown and Sara Legatski criticized city officials for being unprepared for Helene. “There should have been a more urgent call for people to be prepared,” Legatski said. “Were they stationing water off the mountain ready to be trucked up here, knowing how fragile our water system is? None of this is a surprise. Anyone acting like this is a surprise has not been here long enough, is not from the mountains, and does not understand how water works.”
Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said during a press conference on October 1 that despite requesting water supplies from FEMA before the storm, the county only got the first shipment of water three days after Helene hit, according to NBC News. The Asheville news outlet Mountain Xpress noted Pinder’s disappointment in the state partners that fulfill disaster relief requests through FEMA. “There’s a large need in our community, and we would like to see a different response from our state partners,” she said.
“Asked whether the county had its own reserves of water for such emergencies, Pinder acknowledged it didn’t,” NBC News reported.
Community Support
In an NPR broadcast from October 5, 2024, Blue Ridge Public Radio’s Laura Hackett said federal aid was moving through western North Carolina—the area hit hardest by the hurricane—but was taking longer to reach isolated areas, especially where roads were blocked. While residents of those regions waited for assistance, community members and grassroots organizations stepped in. One notable example is the Flush Brigade, a project created by the human rights advocacy group BeLoved Asheville. “[P]eople are crowdsourcing buckets and trucks and delivering non-potable water to neighborhoods, especially in public housing, where people have struggled to flush their toilets without running water,” Hackett explained.
BeLoved Asheville also recruited hikers to deliver food, blankets, and other supplies to areas inaccessible by vehicle. Mountain Mule Packers made similar deliveries with the help of pack animals. “As government agencies, organizations, and businesses haul food, water, and other emergency supplies into North Carolina’s mountain towns using semi-trucks, helicopters, and military planes, Mountain Mule Packers enlisted its mules to help with the load,” Axios reported.
Asheville was considered a “climate haven” before Hurricane Helene, whose destructive force was intensified by global warming, according to ClimaMeter and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In a post describing the aftermath of the Helene disaster, Asheville resident Jacquelyn Dobrinska states that besides relief efforts from military personnel, former Green Berets, FEMA workers, church groups, and local solar companies, Dobrinska witnessed “[m]embers of an anarchist bookshop setting up water systems for low-income and elderly apartment complexes” and high school students shoveling mud. “One day, I volunteered with the register of deeds where teams checked on residents in all sectors—ensuring they had water, sanitation, food, and medication. By the time I reached the front of the line, all the places in need had already been checked.”
One Asheville-based cooperative that has aided Hurricane Helene survivors is the trans-led arts organization Pansy Collective. According to the LGBTQ+ information and entertainment platform Them, this group collected and delivered food, water, batteries, propane, baby formula, diapers, and other essentials.
Also based in Asheville is the nonprofit Equal Plates Project, which gathered donations, purchased food, and prepared, served, and distributed meals to hurricane survivors. Meanwhile, organizations like PODER Emma and Colaborativa La Milpa gathered and delivered essential resources in Asheville’s Emma neighborhood, “especially… [to families] living in mobile home parks,” says East Fork.
Grassroots groups, local businesses, and community members have launched catastrophe relief efforts throughout North Carolina. For example, using small donations and working with groups like Food Not Bombs Charlotte Chapter and the Reproductive Rights Coalition, the social justice group SEAC Village purchased, gathered, and distributed items such as food, generators, and baby supplies to survivors in North Carolina’s most populous city, Charlotte.
In the Blue Ridge Mountains town of Boone, High Country Mutual Aid raised funds and brought community members together to “help folks navigating the damages and challenges left behind by tropical storm Helene.” Residents of areas like Brevard and Hot Springs received free veterinary services, while mutual aid hubs have collected essential supplies in cities like Durham, Greensboro, Carrboro, Raleigh, and Marshall.
Explaining the strong community response to the storm, Garrett Blaize, executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund, told the Guardian, “Because of the region’s history, there is a unique tendency to look after our neighbors. … We come from an area of the country that has oftentimes been defined by scarcity. … [W]e have a lot of embedded cultural values around taking care of each other.”
To support mutual aid efforts for Hurricane Helene survivors, you can reach out to the following organizations:
Damon Orion is a writer, journalist, musician, artist, and teacher in Santa Cruz, California. His work has appeared in Revolver, Guitar World, Spirituality + Health, Classic Rock, High Times, and other publications. Read more of his work at DamonOrion.com.
This article was produced by Local Peace Economy.
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