How to help devastated Western North Carolina today

COMMUNITY NEWS

CHAPEL HILL – The Local Reporter is offering this guide to local citizens to find ways to assist our fellow North Carolinians in Western North Carolina who are struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene’s devastation last week. Today, we see reports from the Asheville Citizen-Times that many areas loved and frequented by our local citizens are devastated, for example, Lake Lure and Chimney Rock. Victims are getting and awaiting help as Biden sends in 1,000 additional troops today. According to the Asheville-Citizen Times, “Tropical Storm Helene has devastated communities, roads impassable and thousands without power. There were only estimates Tuesday evening about the extent of the destruction, with the full scope of Helene devastation not expected to be known for some time.”

The Local Reporter’s Correspondent, Thomas Hicks, was in Boone, N.C. during the storm and remains there, providing us photos from his location.

Flooding on N.C. highway 194 in Boone. Photo by Thomas Hicks.

Please update us on any organizations we have not listed, and we will include them in this article.

The North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund coordinated with Gov. Cooper’s website
Samaritan’s Purse – assisting those in Helen’s path
Baptists on Mission – local Baptist organization sending personnel help and supplies
Greater Good
Red Cross
Catholic Relief Services
North Carolina Department of Public Safety – will also provide current information to current residents and visitors who can access computer information
NC Association of Educators Helene Disaster Relief Fund
Carolina Center for Public Service
How to help Hurricane Helene victims (Asheville Citizen-Times)
Hurricane Relief – UNICEF USA
How to help Hurricane Helene victims, where to donate (The Weather Channel)
Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina – Hurricane Helene response
MountainTrue.org – Sending in kayakers to rescue people trapped.
https://www.heartofthefoothills.org – Animal rescue based in Rutherford County (Chimney Rock/Lake Lure and surrounding area).

Those listed have been vetted and serve as known places to assist those in need.

Many area churches in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Chatham County have set up collection sites for donations of food and supplies. The Armadillo Grille in Chapel Hill is posting on Instagram:

We will collect donations at @orangecountysocialclub to help with disaster relief in Western N.C.

Supplies are greatly needed to help the folks facing an unprecedented predicament.

If dropping supplies is difficult, remember that many great organizations are also making monetary donations. To name a few:

@belovedasheville

@mutualaiddisasterrelief

@manna_foodbank

@brotherwolfanimalrescue

@dayonedisasterrelief

More local outreach from individuals reporting follows:

A letter posted from Mike Resnick in Carolina Meadows –

Here’s a brief update from my son Jared this morning (10/01) that I am sending out to friends and community.

Jared, who lives with his wife Jennifer in Chapel Hill, has been up in Lansing NC area, a small town near West Jefferson, since Friday. Couldn’t get to his nearby mountain house for two days. Fortunately, relatively minor damage. However, the entire area is devastated as shown in the Website site he created: https://lansingrecovery.com. Jared is staying up there to help friends and the Lansing community. He has extensive carpenter skills (in addition to his CEO skills) that they are using. Down here, Jennifer has been very active in the fundraising arena. She told me several carpenters/homebuilding people in our CH/Carrboro will provide help and supplies on Friday.

A mudslide destroyed part of a residential road outside of Boone. Photo by Thomas Hicks.

CONTRIBUTIONS. Many people are in great need throughout the area and much of western NC. If you want to target contributions specifically to the Lansing area, go to the above website. The website also has several other links for much-needed contributions.

Or, to direct funds to the seven-county area… which includes Lansing, West Jefferson, Blowing Rock, and Boone… please contact Hospitality House at https://wwwhosphouse.org/, a well-respected outreach nonprofit community-support agency.

Michelle Cassell is a seasoned reporter who has covered everything from crime to hurricanes and local politics to human interest over the course of 35 years. As managing editor, she hopes to encourage writers of a wide range of backgrounds and interests in TLR’s coverage of Southern Orange County news.
This reporter can be reached at Info@TheLocalReporter.press