North Carolina residents sleeping in tents one month after Hurricane Helene

SWANNANOA, N.C. – Nearly a month after Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the Southeast and killed more than 250 people, North Carolina residents are sleeping in tents where their homes stood, even as temperatures they drop to 30 at night.

Kris Weil is one of several people in Swannanoa sleeping in a tent with her dog outside her home, which was destroyed by heavy flooding and winds on Sept. 27. Weil’s story is nothing short of a miracle.

Less than 24 hours before the storm hit the Appalachian Mountains, Weil’s girlfriend, who was 8 months pregnant, was taken to the hospital because she was experiencing chest pain. Weil stayed home to prepare for the baby, at which point she started getting flood warnings on her phone, not knowing she would soon be without anything.

Weil watched the water quickly flood her neighborhood and then went into her home.

“The house was completely washed off its foundation and we were sucked in through the back window, me, my friend and three dogs, and we managed to survive long enough for a swift water rescue boat to come and get us, to coincidentally, they just showed up in the city of Chicago, Illinois,” Weil told Fox News Digital. “They came and took us out of the tree with a rescue boat. And we’ve been staying in tents.”

The water that flooded Weil’s home forced him out through a rear window that had been broken. He was able to cling to a vine attached to a tree in his backyard with one hand and hold on to one of his dogs with the other hand as water rushed through the area.

It wasn’t until nearly six hours later that a rescue boat from Cook County, Illinois, arrived and transported Weil and his friend to safety.

“She would have been in that tree with me,” Weil said of his girlfriend if she hadn’t gone to the hospital before the storm.

For days, there was no cell phone service or Wi-Fi for Weil to reach his girlfriend, but when he finally found a way to reach her, he learned she had been transported to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill where she gave birth to a healthy baby several. weeks before its due date on October 20.

The couple named their baby Sage Nevaeh, her middle name being “Cel” spelled backwards. Sage is expected to be released from the NICU soon, Weil said. His girlfriend qualified for a program that offered free temporary housing, and she and the baby are doing well.

“The churches, the community, more than anything, have been some of the people who have helped the most. And it has been inspiring to know that we are not forgotten. The people are amazing,” Weil said. “Their willpower and love for other people is incredible. … They have come here in force and brought us everything we need. And they wouldn’t leave until they knew we were okay.”

Volunteers donated several tents to Weil and her dog, as well as a bicycle, food, a camping stove and propane. Emerge Ministries was able to find someone to give Weil a car so he can visit his girlfriend and newborn.

Less than a mile from Weil, Dara Cody and her neighbor sleep in tents where their homes once stood in picturesque gardens on the banks of the Swannanoa River.

“For whatever reason, I couldn’t sleep that night,” Cody said of the night Hurricane Helene passed, adding that he kept “checking and checking” the water level in the river behind his house where he lived since 2010. .

“Something wouldn’t let me rest. I almost fell asleep several times, but something woke me up again,” he explained. “But then around 5 o’clock in the morning, I couldn’t rest until I got up and went to look. … It had jumped about 12 feet in 30 minutes … and it was much higher in my yard and much more thoroughly”.

At that point, Cody woke up his partner and said, “You have to get up right now. We’re not going to make it if you don’t.”

They took all the personal belongings they could and fled their home, which is now a piece of land next to the river that reached the river’s edge that morning, destroying houses, cars and land. The couple found shelter while Helene was passing through the area, but when they returned to where her house was the next day, “she was completely gone.”

“Like, is this a dream? What’s going on here? I just didn’t know how to feel,” Cody recalled.

“Our house, my car, everything was completely gone. And the devastation, not just to my house, to the whole city was absolutely heartbreaking and beyond … there are no words,” he said. “It was shock. It was pain. I was hurt. It was, my heart was broken for my whole town. I’ve lived here my whole life since I was born.”

In the weeks since, Cody has been working to pick up what remains of his home he can. Volunteers from Emerge Ministries have been helping him clean up and dispose of the debris. At night, Cody, his partner, and their neighbor sleep in tents along the now destroyed banks of the Swannanoa.

She added that she is a candidate for a tiny house “if the county allows it.”

“All the volunteers that have come here have been beyond what we could ever imagine and have been more generous than we could ever imagine,” Cody said. “They have all done more for us than we could ever imagine any person, especially strangers, would do for us. The outpouring of love and compassion and generosity and giving from people… has blown our minds. It’s amazing “.

Shannon Martin Easley from Louisiana and Judy Norris from North Carolina are two Emerge Ministries volunteers who have been helping Cody and others after Helene. The ministry has 50 to 150 volunteers in the western North Carolina region “from all over the country” who provide help “every day,” Easley said.

“My uncle cleared a driveway for a man a few days ago, and he hadn’t seen a human in 20 days,” Easley said. “How many more are like him?”

Volunteers from Ohio and Maryland also spoke to Fox News Digital in Swannanoa.

Martha Hershberger and her husband, Roy, of Shekinah Christian Fellowship in Ohio, have been serving hot meals under a tent in a parking lot on Main Road in Swannanoa. She estimates that she and other volunteers have been serving 1,500 to 2,000 meals a day.

“We’ve dealt with a number of people who have lost their homes, and we’ve talked to some who have seen their neighbors drown and everything get washed away,” Hershberger said. “We have spoken to some who have their own house. They lost a little bit of power, but they’re all affected by the trauma.”

Hershberger added that the people of western North Carolina will need “long-term help.”

Several Maryland volunteers echoed that sentiment. Barbara Kaufman of A Lady and A Hop Maryland LLC, David Hawkins of Hawkins Landscaping and Michele Payton of Pulling for Veterans came to Swannanoa from Frederick to deliver supplies and services to those in need. Kaufman said he traveled to the area to help people clean up their damaged homes.

“We need boots on the ground, hands to the plow,” Kaufman said. “These people here need help.”

“Yeah, they shouldn’t be sleeping in tents,” Payton added.

A total of 26 North Carolinians remain missing in the wake of Helene. The storm caused widespread damage in seven states that will take years for some cities to recover. Locals and volunteers compared Helene’s devastation to a war zone.