Sowiejas take 2nd trip to assist with hurricane relief
By Nan Sowieja, Willard When God called us to help the Hurricane Helene folks, we listened. After my husband John and I spent our first trip volunteering in Tennessee and North Carolina the first week in October, we knew we would be goingback.Wehadmadesomegreatcontacts on our first trip, and I kept hearing about a food pantry in Newport, Tenn., that was right on the river and had lost everything. I heard it was a huge loss to the community. I started doing research, and found out it was called Bread Basket. I got in touch with Trish, who has run it for over eight years and has been a volunteer for over 25 years. She told me that they feed 800 to 1,200 people a month, and their current supply would only last a few weeks. Since we have always been fortunate to have food in our bellies, we decided that was going to be our next trip, going down to support Bread Basket.
I was talking to Dr. Kate Ghess at East Fountain Chiropractic in Greenwood, and she mentioned that she had previously partnered with the local food pantries around this time of year. She was very excited about supporting our mission and wanted to partner with us. So, she and her assistant Kristy Bieneck-Gurney started collecting food for us shortly before we were to leave for our second mission to Tennessee and North Carolina. We left Nov. 29 and returned Dec. 19. We had a list of specific items needed by the Bread Basket, such as single-serving foods or other easy foods for people living in tents. Dr. Kate and Kristy took the challenge on with open arms. Over the course of a couple weeks, community members collected over 400 pounds of food to go to Bread Basket, in addition to $250 in monetary donations. My heartfelt appreciation goes to everyone for helping feed bellies in Tennessee where the devastation is still so great, and so many are living in tents or cars still.
When speaking to Trish at Bread Basket, I mentioned to her that my husband was a hunter and we could bring some venison with us. She loved that idea, and said, “Please do; we really could use it here.” John was able to fill our freezer with one and ended up with four more during bow and gun seasons. John and I processed it all and were able to haul that meat down as well.
The people at Bread Basket were very grateful when we arrived on Nov. 30 with all the food. Trish talked to us regarding what happened in the flood, and after. The pantry has moved to a warehouse and the Dollywood Foundation has paid for their first year of rent there. A few days after we left, Trish sent me pictures of her making a lot of venison stew, which she put in individual containers, and the people were loving it.
On our second trip, we were better prepared for what we were going to see and hear. On the first trip you can’t prepare for it, as you have no idea. We had pulled our camper down; that is how we towed all the food down there. We had the plan for our first week of where we were going to stay, but not what we were going to do. We asked the volunteers at the Bread Basket, and they led us to a couple, Rob and Michelle in Del Rio, Tenn. Hundreds of homes were completely gone from the flooding, including roads and railroad tracks hanging with the ground underneath washed out. The area was hit very hard, and a lot of people left, as they don’t have it in them to rebuild everything with very little financial help.
We teamed up with Rob and Michele, learning the floods had destroyed their home, a tiny home where his mom lived, and another apartment. Listening to Rob tell us the story while he was holding back tears was truly heartbreaking. John was able to help build a water pressure tank insulated hut. John was able to build this (except the walls) all from pulling wood out of the 9-foot tall, by 15 feet wide, by 75 feet long debris pile on Rob’s property, all from what was washed up from the flooding. There were many random items, such as an oven mitt, vacuum, a necktie, pots, mustard packets, baseball cards, broken record albums, CDs, and on, plus a bunch of wood and trees.
In searching for some 4-by-6 pieces for John, I spotted some cellophane. I pulled it out, and it was 10 old pictures of kids at Disneyland. I showed Rob and it was him and his family. He got very emotional, asking how did these stay here and not float away? It was just like his family Bible that was laying on the riverbank, untouched, and his brother’s flag from his time in the service that was hanging in a tree. (His brother lost his life in Afghanistan fighting for our county). We also found an antique bowl in the pile, completely intact.
We also spent time getting Rob and Michele’s camper ready for them to move back on their property. They were living down the road in someone else’s camper. I cleaned up their yard of miscellaneous washed up items, such as hair brushes, nail polish, tons of house debris like boards, siding, tiles, plywood, etc. I also cleaned up the silt around the trees that held trapped debris too, like lawn chairs, part of a gate, and more. This first week we also helped the single mom and her 6-year-old daughter Chloe whom we met on our first trip to the area. John was able to get her trailer heat working, holes in the floor patched and other items fixed for her. We prayed a lot during the week, as to where we needed to make our next stop to help out with our skills the most. We ended up driving two hours from the first campground in Cosby, Tenn., almost to the North Carolina border to a campground called Camp Faith — a very rugged, beautiful campground up in the mountains. The camp is right on the Appalachian Trail and the once-beautiful Lake Watauga. The owner Darren welcomed us with open arms. Mennonites were there putting up a temporary fire station, as the river took the station and their fire trucks. The video Darren filmed of the station and trucks getting swallowed up by the water went viral and they had 11 fire trucks from across the country donated to them, along with tons of gear to replace what they lost. Due to the road being washed out from Darren’s just minutes to where the station was, they had to set up three temporary stations; thus all the fire trucks were perfect for all three temp places. John was able to get electricity and propane to the temp fire station, and completely wired it with outlets, overhead lights, door openers, and outside lights. He also put in propane heaters. John also did other related work at Camp Faith to repair what the flooding and winds destroyed. For example, he used a chainsaw on the side of mountain to cut away all the trees that fell on top of the big water tank Darren had for his cabins on the property. John was also able to utilize his skills and get the water pumps working better for him. While John did that, I met a lady, Syndi, whom I called the “Angel on Wheels.” She would get a list of names of people needing things, drive to distribution centers looking for the items, and then go and deliver the items. I rode with her, meeting amazing people that were so grateful for what Syndi was doing for them and their pets. The stories are horrific of what they went through in life and now with the flooding. I realized the best gift you can give these individuals is a listening ear.
We were given a box of Bibles to hand out, and people were very gracious receiving a new-to-them Bible. I also volunteered in the distribution centers, including one down the road from Camp Faith in an old elementary school building. They had each classroom set up with different items: one for baby stuff, one for sleeping bags and blankets, one for tents, etc.; it was like a store. They even utilized the lockers.
The temperatures were in the teens, very cold for them in the area. People were still living in tents, and we found out that four adults and a baby were found frozen to death.
I read in a Facebook volunteer group that Burnsville,
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N.C., was in desperate need of some supplies — mainly heaters, propane, low-temperature sleeping bags, and winter clothes and boots. This led John and I to Burnsville to an organization called Rebuilding Hollers that needed a lot of supplies immediately. Having worked in other distribution centers, I saw they had the items Rebuilding Hollers was looking for. We went and picked up the items, and delivered them to Rebuilding Hollers. Driving the 60 minutes there through beautiful mountainous country, the devastation was overwhelming. You could see what the 140 mph winds did on the north facing sides of the mountains, with thousands of trees down everywhere. Now the people of the area are very concerned about mudslides when it rains. We could see where road crews did a lot of work to get the roads opened for travel.
We met Stephanie Johnson, a realtor in town who started Rebuilding Hollers. She became very emotional talking about what happened and how the flooding destroyed their beautiful river and town. She said, “I’m not giving up, so I started this and God has brought in so many volunteers to get supplies out to the people in the hollers.”
“Holler” is an Applachian way of pronouncing “hollow,” and a hollow is a small valley between two mountains.Aholler is more than a lane running through that small valley—it’s the entire valley on both sides of that road.
The area has many hollers quite a ways from town, and they don’t have means to get into town because they lost everything. They are afraid to leave their land and lose that too. Stephanie said she wasn’t going to get into building supplies; then a semi truck showed up with wood for her cause. So she said, “Here I go. I’m doing this to build back these hollers”; thus the name of her organization. She has a very well-oiled distribution center. People fill out their needs in a form online, it gets printed off, and volunteers go around and fill the orders. Then volunteers call folks, stating their order is ready. We were able to help fill five families’ orders. We enjoyed working with them. We told Stephanie we will be back, and our next trip is planned for April.
We did not work with any one particular organization; we just followed where God was leading us to help out. We were blessed to be able to do this, as some folks have felt forgotten. For one particular couple we met, Toni and Johnny, four different people stated they would come and help them and never showed up. Johnny has a broken back and needed assistance. They needed the camper that was given to them to be winterized in the frigid teen temperatures.
Their beautiful home was still standing, but had 5 feet of water/mud flow through it. Johnny with his broken back was taken out of the back of house through a window and got loaded in a truck. The house is now full of mold, including toxic black mold. We were able to get the camper winterized for them, and Toni texted me the next day saying, “Thank you so much! The camper was so much warmer last night.”
All the folks we met were very grateful for our help and have become friends. “You are not just friends; you are part of my family now,” said Toni.
Volunteering in Tennessee and North Carolina has been very rewarding as the people have taught us so much about “things.” We learned that they are still searching for hundreds of missing people. They need that to have closure for things like life insurance or mortgages to be able to move forward with claims. Also, we learned that even though their homes and cars are gone, if they had a loan on them, they are still responsible for paying on those loans. John and I and our new friend Syndi did have a fun adventure in going to Bristol Motor Speedway to partake in the drive-through light show. We saw more than 5 miles of incredible lights, while driving up on the decking where the concession stands are, where people walk around to drive right down on the track. The steepness of the track is absolutely amazing to experience for yourself. We thoroughly enjoyed this little getaway. Since the day of the disaster, Sept. 27, the speedway has been set up as a big distribution hub. The funds raised from the light show were going towards a children’s charity.
We received some amazing donations and have used a majority of it to help the folks of Tennessee and North Carolina. Thank you to the folks near and far, people close to us, and the ones we don’t even know. You have made a huge difference in trying to bring some normalcy back after a very tragic event. God bless you.
Please continue to pray for all these survivors who have lost so much, from loved ones, to jobs, to homes and cars, to belongings including possibly family heirlooms, and the list goes on. Their stories will forever be with us; they have touched our hearts so much. We won’t give up on them, either.
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