Last month my family drove from Maryland to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and I felt the “tingles” I get when I look up at the gorgeous and majestic mountain range. I am going home!
Hurricane Helene left my hometown in southwest Virginia temporarily without electricity and water, but overall, the friends and neighbors I grew up with are doing well. Not so just 100 miles south, in western North Carolina, where we also have many friends and loved ones. The area there has been decimated, along with a strip from Florida to Tennessee where Hurricane Helene left a path of devastation and wreckage. Residents are still unaccounted for, many don’t have cell coverage due to washed out cell towers, and electricity and running water may still be weeks away.
What’s emerging in all this chaos and devastation are heroic stories of firefighters, EMTs, linemen (and women), healthcare workers and everyday citizens helping each other. Whenever there is chaos, there are always people who join others together. Neighbors helping neighbors. Pooling food, sharing bottled water. I have four colleagues in the Asheville area and each one of them is piecing together their lives, appreciating that they are physically well, and feeling grateful for the camaraderie of friendship. Local restaurants are serving food for free. What can you or your organization do to help?
Here are a number of local agencies that will be in Asheville long after the federal programs leave. (Thanks to those national and international programs too!)
United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County
If you are seeking ways to help, the Washington Post ran an article about ways we can all contribute.
When you have had adversity and loss in your life, who and what have been helpful? How can you make a difference during this tragedy?
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