Our trip review for our work giving aid to the affected areas of Hurricane Helene:
Overall, we received an estimated 2,000lbs of supplies and $6,300 in donations (with only a couple days of notice!). We purchased an additional estimated 1,000lbs of supplies and donated our remaining funds to Keystone Dynamic Solutions, AVL F.A.S.T, and Project Unify (16:15 Ministries).
Long Form:
On Friday 8/4 our volunteers got together after finishing our typical work shifts for our employers. We picked up a rental trailer and stopped at a volunteer’s home to pick up supplies. Our families also helped with the facilitation of accepting, gathering, and transporting supplies to CHOICES (our local sponsoring ministry). That evening, we sorted out our preparations and supplies (personal and donations) to have a packing and travel plan. We organized and inventoried (totaled below) all the donations that were gathered and loaded them in the trailer. We did a rough estimation as to weight limits of the truck and trailer and figured we could still add some more. With a few minutes before closing times, we hopped over to local grocery and hardware store to fill up 3 or 4 more large totes with canned goods, dry food, batteries, lights, and other emergency supplies. We put those totes in the trailer, drove to Lowes as we brainstormed some more potential needs and picked up a handful of things there: chainsaw bar and chain, orange vests, heavy gloves, tire patch kits, and pad locks. We checked tire pressures, filled the gas tank and started our trip around 9:30pm.
The trip down was largely uneventful, but it did end up taking longer than planned due to multiple delays, including a brake caliper that started to hang up and get hot in the mountains of West Virginia. So, we stopped to let the brakes cool, found a parts store and picked up an extra brake caliper and pads just in case the issue started to reoccur. Thankfully, we didn’t have any problems with it for the rest of the trip.
We spent the trip discussing a lot and teaching where we could: from hard skills to theology. We also spent time brainstorming about what we were driving into, appropriate courses of action, and planning with people already on the ground. We rotated driving/navigating and taking turns sleeping overnight.
The plan was to arrive at Grindstone FOB, touch base with our point of contact there, and find work to do until they could unload our donations in the evening. However, during the drive, we were contacted about a former member of our Christian community in Western New York who lived near, and had family who lived in, Asheville, NC. With the situation being so dynamic, we started layering plans for attempting to get supplies and manpower into Asheville, NC based on information we hoped to receive upon arrival.
The biggest lesson was lack of logistics. We expected to arrive and be put to work or given concrete direction on how to help. Unfortunately, that was not the reality as you are about to read.
We arrived around noon on Saturday in Jonesborough, TN at the church that was hosting Grindstone Ministries. We touched base with our point of contact with the River Valley Minutemen who also came to offer relief supplies and manpower. We learned that the situation was increasingly difficult. Each main road over the mountains and river down into Ashville was either washed away (bridges gone) or shut down by the DOT. Hearing this, we started to do our own route planning, hoping we could also help RVM with research as well. After we had no luck with digital route planning, we started making inquiries with the locals and volunteers about a route into the area. This was also difficult due to the cell reception issues that many of our contacts were facing – we would get some details and then not hear from them for hours. We received basically the same answer from everyone: the only way to Asheville, normally a 30 minute drive from our location, was a 4-5 hour detour around the region and to come in from the NE or SW corners. On top of this, the routes available were not trailer friendly and we would have to repack our supplies. At this point, it was already 3PM and we realized that our best available route included dirt mountain roads and it would likely be dark while we navigated into one of the worst areas affected by the storm. Not to mention, our contact in the region only had intermittent communications and would repeatedly be unreachable for hours at a time. The group agreed that this entailed too much unnecessary risk and we chose to take our first load of donations to Bristol Speedway where we were told supplies were getting flown from to Western North Carolina.
We made the drive back up to Bristol and dropped off supplies with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. With some time still left in the day and donations left in the bank, we stopped at a couple grocery stores and started taking carts full of supplies to the trailer again. Many other shoppers were complimentary about our endeavor and one gentleman offered to pay for our cart of supplies. We ensured him that we were okay and that this cart would be expensive but he insisted. He ended up paying for around $550 dollars worth of supplies in that cart. Another kind woman handed us some cash on our way out of the store. It seemed many people wanted to help, but just didn’t know how. We once again stocked up on more diapers, hygiene products, survival supplies, clothes, blankets, medicines, and more. At this point we were past the donation window for either location and most of us were operating on very limited sleep for the last 48 hours. We decided to head back to Grindstone, catch up with RVM and donate this load in the morning.
When we got back to Grindstone, we checked in with a couple volunteers, asked to sleep there for the night, and they put us up in the basement. RVM had relocated to try to find more ways into the affected area, so it was just us and a few other volunteers sleeping there that night. We unpacked our gear, grabbed some quick food, and crashed relatively quickly.
Sunday morning we woke up early to get our trailer unpacked and out of the way for the church attendees arriving for service. We got everything unpacked with the Grindstone volunteers who were very helpful and were about to have their morning brief. So, we discussed on our own how we should move forward. The potentially problematic brake caliper was still a concern and we figured we should give ourselves a couple hours buffer to get home and sleep before our Monday morning work shifts. So, we packed up our gear, and started the trip back home.
I think we all felt pretty defeated. We totally accomplished our goal for the weekend – transporting donations to Grindstone for relief operations, and yet we really wanted to at least attempt our secondary goal of getting supplies and manpower to The Gathering Church in Asheville. However, on our drive, we started to get more details and some factors came into focus that really let us see that the secondary goal was simply not meant for us. We started to feel encouraged as we took faith in God’s sovereignty and direction. I received a text from one of our NC contacts that said, “Your attempt was not in vain. God will use it. You might not know until you get to Heaven.” Our shift in view lightened the atmosphere on the way home. But we also spent a lot of time thinking about ways we could be more equipped and efficient for next time.
Looking back on the experience after being home for a couple weeks, I am confident that God directed our steps and used us according to His plan. We have resources left over to help with the ongoing recovery and rebuilding efforts. I have been told that our experience was the motivation for multiple other groups that went down to help. Our connections made through this have enable us to direct further support and donations to the groups that are putting in the work and really need the help. Our development as a community has been fostered in organizing and executing something like this (and on incredibly short notice). And the lessons learned have been invaluable.
We are overwhelming blessed and thankful for all the donations and support that we received for this trip. Many of you were checking in, connecting us with contacts, asking for updates, pictures, and offering encouragement. After the expenses for the trip (fuel, trailer rental, supplies, etc) and the second load of supplies, we had a remainder of $1866 to donate to other organizations that are supporting the people and region.
We decided to donate to some of the organizations that we have seen putting in very tangible efforts on the ground in the affected area. We split the $1,866 into three donations and gave equally ($622 each) to the following organizations: Keystone Dynamic Solutions, AVL F.A.S.T, and Project Unify (16:15 Ministries).
Our drop off donation list (before we shopped for more): Each Quantity measured in "boxes" for ease - this could range from large bags to totes Baby Formula/Food: 5
Diapers: 49
Wipes: 5
Water: 21
Medicine: 1
Toiletries: 11
Feminine Products: 6 Food: 9 Clothing: 2
Tools: 4 (and space heater, shovel, tarp)
Cleaning Supplies: 7
Blankets: 2
First Aid: 2
Drinks: 2