Building for God’s people
Five days a week, regardless of the weather, volunteers from the diocese and across the country are helping to rebuild homes damaged by Helene. (Photo by Troy C. Hull | Catholic News Herald)SWANNANOA — The sound of hammers driving nails ring through the cold, clear air on a recent afternoon in Swannanoa. For many people, a routine sound of building. For the people here, every pound of the hammer is a step on the road back to a normal life.
Sounds of work such as these have been coming from inside and outside mobile homes at the Alan Campos Mobile Home Park in Swannanoa, a neighborhood engulfed by floodwaters when Tropical Storm Helene ravaged the Swannanoa Valley and dozens of other mountain communities.
Many of the mobile homes in this park were flooded by Helene, forcing residents out of their homes and into the grip of uncertainty that has struck so many in western North Carolina. That’s where Catholic Charities is stepping in.
Since the storm, Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte has been working to rebuild many of the Alan Campos mobile homes so people can return to their lives. Antonio Garcia, a Hispanic Ministry coordinator in the Asheville Vicariate, has stepped in to work with the agency to help coordinate the efforts.
Catholic Charities has been partnering with the Community Organized Relief Effort, a global crisis response organization, to get the work done.
“This was a community nobody had touched after the storm, so we were glad to be able to come here,” Garcia said. “The response from volunteers and the local community has been great.”
Ongoing response
Work at the mobile home park is part of Catholic Charities’ ongoing response to survivors’ needs. Relief started immediately after the storm with truckloads of supplies, continued with raising funds to help with immediate needs, and now has shifted to helping with long-term needs such as rebuilding homes, according to Gerry Carter, executive director and chief executive officer for the agency.
Catholic Charities to date has raised more than $9 million for Helene relief efforts, which includes donations coming from all 50 states and countries on three continents. So far, it has spent $1.1 million on direct financial help to survivors in five critical areas: with emergency items such as food, water and baby items; building repairs; financial assistance; rent and utilities. In addition, they have committed another $1 million in anticipated costs. To date, direct financial assistance has reached over 900 identified households.
Some of those funds are committed to providing at least four months of propane – at a cost of $2,700 per month – to power 55 temporary trailers at Haven on the Hill, a refuge in Waynesville for families displaced by the storm. This critical support will sustain the community through April while permanent housing solutions are being developed.
As some other organizations have exhausted their donated funds, Catholic Charities is taking a more judicious approach to address needs that will linger for months if not years as reconstruction continues.
“The bulk of expenses come now with this phase of disaster recovery – the rebuilding of homes – which is where significant costs take place,” Carter said. “One family home, for example, might easily require tens of thousands of dollars. This is also the most time consuming, because it frequently involves massive reconstruction costs and time frames. As we’ve said repeatedly, we’re in this for this long term. We will not stop until every resource is exhausted to help those impacted by Helene.”
Stepping in to help
So far about $200,000 has gone toward the repair work at Alan Campos, primarily funding building materials ranging from drywall and flooring to lumber and paint.
Five days a week at 8:30 a.m., regardless of weather, at least 25 volunteers show up to do whatever is needed – painting, woodwork, repairing drywall, moving furniture. Some of them are local to the area, while others drive in daily from Charlotte and others traveled hundreds of miles to lend a hand.
Denise and Joe Poirier of Michigan were hard at work at one home, cutting wood to rebuild a deck and steps. The Poiriers are members of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Wayland in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. This was their second trip. In November, they assisted with needs around Hendersonville for three weeks.
“This has just been a wonderful experience because we’ve been able to get in a lot closer to work where the needs are,” Joe Poirier said. “Everyone has been great to work with.”
Deacon J.D. Williams, his wife Christy and two of their six children were hard at work a few doors down.
They made their first trip to North Carolina in October. After seeing images of the devastation, the couple collected a trailer full of tools, food and camping supplies and drove it from their home in Virginia to a supply hub in Waynesville run by the nonprofit Operation Air Drop, which worked to airlift supplies to people stranded on mountaintops.
The devastation so moved the couple that they wanted to help more.
“People were telling us just to write a check, but I was convinced that somebody needed to be getting in here to do actual work, to help with the rebuilding,” Deacon Williams said.
An unanticipated connection brought them to Swannanoa.
“My husband’s cousin lives near here, and Antonio went and cleaned some trees off her house,” Christy Williams said. “I was on the phone with her and I said, ‘Hey, how do we help? How do we get connections?’ She gave me Antonio’s phone number, and here we are.”
Christy Williams was excited to show one home where she and her husband had been working alongside others for a week, installing floors and more. She was especially proud of a bedroom they painted in a teenager’s favorite colors to give her a vibrant new beginning.
Deacon Williams wants to connect with other parishes in his Diocese of Alexandria to mobilize more volunteers. One of his biggest hopes is to organize youth for a work session over spring break.
Christy Williams came close to tears when talking about her time in Swannanoa.
“God, I really believe, has been involved in this every step of the way,” she said. “I felt pulled from the beginning that we had to run – run – to help because we are the hands and the feet of Christ. The phrase ‘Who is my neighbor?’ kept going through my mind. These people are our neighbors. And we have to help them.”
— Christina Lee Knauss
How to help
There has been an outpouring of assistance from people in the diocese, across the country and around the world. Continued assistance is still needed as the relief focus has shifted toward long-term recovery assistance. Here’s how you can help people in need, or get assistance if you live in the affected areas:
Donate money
Monetary donations are the fastest, most flexible and most effective way to support emergency relief efforts. Local responders on the ground can use the funds to help people with immediate as well as long-term needs. Give securely online: www.ccdoc.org/helenerelief.
Need help?
- Reach Catholic Charities via an online request form and/or local contact information at www.ccdoc.org.
- North Carolina 2-1-1: Use the state’s info hotline (call 211 and press 1, or go online to www.nc211.org) to find information about getting food, water and shelter; finding loved ones; checking current road conditions; filing damage and insurance claims; and other issues.
- FEMA assistance: Go to www.disasterassistance.gov, call 800-621-3362, or download and apply through the FEMA app.
Add your prayers
The diocese has an online prayer request form at: www.charlottediocese.org/form-prayer-request.
