Echoes of Helene, Article 1: Partnerships & Community

Jennifer: We were able to make a lot of new partnerships. In all the different agencies we worked with, everyone worked together so smoothly.

Whenever we run the shelter, we have to have a registration desk to keep up with everyone that comes on the property. After about the 3rd day of me not sleeping, we were able to partner with McDowell DSS to man the registration desk 24 hours a day. Their job was registering each person and sending them to the designated quarters based on if they are single, families, or have special mobility needs.

The church was divided up so that the classrooms were for families. The fellowship hall was the men’s quarters. Another part of the church became the women’s quarters. Another area was set up for those with special needs such as not being able to navigate stairs.

We had so many people brought to us at once that we had them lined down the sidewalk waiting to get in and be registered. While we were registering people, we had others coming from far away looking for their family member(s). That was the really hard part, telling them we weren’t sheltering their family. We didn't know where they were. We took those names too.

Jennifer: In addition to the registration desk, we had a medical team keeping up with those that have medical needs like medications and mobility aids like wheelchairs or oxygen tanks. Our biggest issue in the beginning was finding enough oxygen concentrators. That was really the start to the medical team, finding enough oxygenators and concentration tanks. 

Sierra W. oversaw the medical teams that came in to help and began looking at all of our patients that came into the shelter. Not only did we shelter people from the community, EOC transferred patients to our shelter from the hospital by ambulance. The hospital had an influx of patients that they didn’t have room to care for there. The patients we received technically just needed a little extra medical care, or they didn’t have a home to go to after discharge. At one time, we had 17 patients from the hospital with some kind of medical need. Sierra was relieved of her oversight duty when a team of doctors came in. 

A doctor in Virginia heard what happened so she came to stay with us and help. We had a rotation of doctors and nurses on the staff. We also had some home health nurses come in to help with those that needed assistance bathing, or making sure they had their medications. 

Natasha: Some patients had Alzheimer’s disease. They were trying to pack their bags and leave to go home, but we couldn’t let them just walk out the door. 

Jennifer: The hardest night was when we had 4 medical calls at once in the shelter. We had a rotating ambulance service that came in from out of state, but they were EMTs not paramedics, so they were limited on what they could do. We ended up transporting 4 patients that night.

We were so overwhelmed with patients from the hospital that they decided to open a medical shelter at the YMCA. We started transferring patients to the YMCA so they could receive care at the medical shelter. 

Natasha: It was a very strange experience. You see things like this on tv, you hear about people saying all this stuff, but until you’ve lived through it it’s unlike anything you can ever describe to somebody. I think the relationships that were formed during the whole thing were just unlike anything that you could ever imagine. We had 24/7 EMS staff from Missouri. Two men were on day shift and two ladies were on night shift. It’s been a year now but we still communicate with them. When they heard we were forecasted to get some bad weather around Christmas time, they were calling to check in on us, to make sure we were ok. 

Jennifer: I know I was here 17 days but I can’t tell you what day was what. The days were so long and tiring. I think the most memorable and highlight of them were the evenings. I really enjoyed getting to walk around checking on the families and having a moment to sit down with them. Just getting to sit down at night and hear their stories, where they came from, and it helped us to know in what way we could help them.

Natasha: People that came into this shelter were probably at the most vulnerable point that they’ve ever been in their lives. We made it a point that when it came time to settle in for the evenings to eat, that we would sit with different people, not the same friends we’ve always sat with. People would share their stories, sometimes until 11 or 12 at night. 

My basement like Jennifer’s had flooded, but I still had a house to go home to. It’ll still be there when I get home. People literally were coming in with mud up to their waist. Some were mad. We had to be the sounding board for them, and sometimes we had to just sit and cry with them awhile. 

Jacob: What I witnessed here in the shelter I’ve never witnessed in any ministry that I’ve ever worked. Yea some people were angry, but some would come in and you could see the timidness in them. People came in that hadn’t just been displaced because of the storm, they had already been homeless prior. The way the volunteers treated them, Jennifer and Natasha especially, was really great, because they were treated like the humans they are. They came in and were served with friendliness and a smiling face. Not every place treats them that way in normal times.

Jennifer: We had several widowed guests that came in who had no one. 

One lady sat in our old fellowship hall for 2 weeks with no word from anyone. Her family didn’t know she was here. I tried calling her son’s number over and over every day. Two weeks later, on the day her son walked through the door, this lady who used a walker, jumped up and ran into his arms. 

My sister, my nephew, and my nieces all live in Swannanoa. I didn’t get to hear from them for a week. I was on the phone with Deanna Ray doing our daily check-ins when my sister and her family walked in here. I threw my phone and ran to them. I came back to the phone. “I'm sorry but I just got to see my family for the first time in 2 weeks.”

Jacob: My family is from Asheville. I had only been here a few months at that time. It was very hard for me to be here not knowing if my family was dead there. It was simply by the grace of God that Jennifer’s daughter in law worked in Candler where my family lives. She did a wellness check so I was able to know that my family was alive and safe. 

Natasha: People never complained if kids were upstairs being loud. A spilled drink was just cleaned up. It was one of those things that at the end of each day, we had survived it. Everyone came together. No one was fighting. If any of us got upset we walked off, took a minute, had a breakdown and came back ready to go again. I don’t know how many people came through to bring us supplies and commented on how they’ve never seen anything like this. They asked how we weren't just sick of each other by that point. It was just God, we were here, this is what we were meant to be doing. 

Natasha: In the middle of the second week, we tried to take a few hours to be away. There were enough people here to handle things. I tried to be gone, just for a little while. 

But then I’d think, “I need to go back. Something needs to be done.” 

Jennifer: Like Natasha said, you didn’t really get a break. I made a commitment when we opened up the shelter that I wasn’t going home until the last guest went home.

We had a young couple here with a baby. They didn’t speak English. A translator came in to ask the mom if she or the baby needed anything. The baby was nursing and didn’t need anything. The husband was leaving each day before breakfast, probably around 5 am, to work on the trailer that someone had given them because the storm had destroyed their home. She left each day to clean homes to make money to rebuild. The first time I did leave, she had used google translate to ask if I would take her to get some Mexican food. I thought she had called in a to go order and just needed to go pick it up. When we got to the restaurant, she got the baby out and was just standing there looking at me still in the car. I figured out she wanted to go in to eat. While inside, some people who knew what was going on at the church were also eating. They paid for our bill. The mom was very upset but I couldn’t understand why. She used google translate again to tell me her husband had asked her to take me out to eat as a thank you for taking care of them and because someone else had bought their food, they weren't able to do that. I said it doesn't matter who paid and she didn’t have to buy my lunch to thank me. I told her that it was enough just seeing her be able to relax and eat while getting to sit with her. It didn’t matter who paid.

Jennifer: I actually had a birthday during this time. The Glenwood Fire Department did what they always do - they stayed at the fire department the whole time. A few days after my birthday, they asked me to come to the fire department. One of the deputies encouraged me to go. I hadn’t showered in I’m not sure how long, so I took my clothes to shower there. I didn’t know it until I got there, but they had cooked for me. I just walked into that bathroom and cried. I felt so guilty leaving the place I felt I needed to be. It couldn’t be about me or my birthday. I greatly appreciated them cooking for me, but I couldn’t stay and celebrate my birthday while leaving people who had nothing. I got a plate of the food, and came back to the shelter. They understood that I had to be here until all of these people were safe again. That’s one of the memories that stands out to me and how this whole situation affected everyone so deeply.

Jennifer: We had some really great support partnerships. Kathy and Natasha took on being the lead on food because while I couldn’t focus on that, we had to feed these people.

Natasha: The amount of people that came from everywhere is just mindblowing. People we know from New Bern were calling to say they had tractor trailer loads of stuff, and asked if we could use it. I told them we were feeding 200+ people a day, to send whatever they had! Local restaurants called to say they had food they were going to lose, could we use it? 

The Lucky Strike called to say if we could get a trailer, we could have the freezers from the Miner’s Diner and the food that was in them. We parked them outside under our pull through for 2 weeks to store food. 

Roaming Buffalo Outpost called a church member. They were going to lose all of their meat. We asked how much they wanted for it. Their reply was, “Nothing. Please just use it to cook for people.” We got to cook deer meat, hamburger steak, and more. 

Jennifer: Apparently there was some really good cobbler but I never saw it

Natasha: There was some really good cobbler haha. 

Jennifer: I guess I didn’t slow down long enough to get any.  

Jacob: I made the nastiest fried green tomatoes I’ve ever had in my life. 

Natasha: Yes, you did.

Jacob: They pretended to like it. 

Natasha: It was pretty gross though. 

Jacob: That’s not what you said then though! It was nasty, it was bad. 

Natasha: Pastor Bob Ritter from Nebo Crossing came. They had a conference scheduled for that weekend, so they had a lot of foods like deli meat. He said it was going to go bad, could we use it? I didn’t know what else to say other than bring it.

Our refrigerator started getting absolutely just packed full. We were having to call people and say if you have power can you store some things for us or do you have an extra freezer? One of the church members brought a small chest freezer and let us fill it up. We fed people 3 meals a day. It was extremely long hours, a lot of stress. But we had support from absolutely everywhere.

Jennifer: We had a chiropractor from Rutherford County reach out to Kathy and me. He took on contacting and coordinating food trucks so we had a food truck here everyday.

Natasha: Sometimes 2! 

Jennifer: The very first food truck that showed up had traveled up to Burnsville but everyone had turned him away. He came to us and said he had a trailer load of food, all he wanted to do was feed people that had been displaced. We welcomed him with open arms. I don’t even know where he was from, but he set up on our property and fed people. He actually came back another time. That started the food truck rotation. The food trucks fed our volunteers and the people in our shelter. 

Baptists on Mission brought food. They set it up in the front of the church and fed everyone that came through our distribution center. Whether someone drove or walked to this piece of property, they were fed well by people who volunteered.

Natasha: I had never experienced anything of this magnitude of all of these people coming together. We’re used to feeding our church crowd, but this was different. We ministered to people that may not have darkened the door of a church for many years. People that may have never darkened the door of a church, came in asking for Bibles. Jacob said to get a Bible from the pew and give it to them. You'd see them sit down and read it. If it meant it reached one person, all we did was worth it.

Jacob: Not that the hurricane was a good thing, but it gave us the chance we never would have gotten otherwise to love on these people the way we did. 

Jennifer: We partnered with McDowell County Schools as well. All of the schools had to close but had food. Glenwood Elementary became the hub for all of the school's foods. Breakfast and lunch were provided by McDowell County Schools each day until they were able to open back up. We gave them our daily numbers and the staff would cook then bring it over.

In addition to providing food, the teachers started calling all of their students’ families just wanting to make contact, to make sure they were ok. Glenwood’s principal Deanna told the teachers that if they couldn’t make contact with a family, to let her know. Deanna and a team used Glenwood Baptist Church’s bus to get to the homes if contact wasn’t made.We loaded it up with water, snacks, and food we had cooked here in the community. When they were able to make contact with the family, they were able to leave supplies with them. 

When we realized this was not going to be ending quickly, Deanna reached out to some of our teachers. They started a sort of camp like summer camp because a lot of the parents were trying to deal with losing everything, while keeping their kids safe and helping them to understand that everything was still going to be ok. Taking the kids over to the school everyday allowed the parents to leave to do whatever they needed like finding medications, going to the bank, finding FEMA, or calling their insurance companies.

Old Fort Elementary had major losses, but they still brought the stuff they were able to save like kid size chairs, tables, and toys. They also brought coloring books and crayons. We were able to set up a whole fun area for the kids that were staying with us. 

Natasha: When Crystal and Heather from the John Thompson Mission and the Friendship Home for Women and Children heard about what we had going on here, they came in to talk with all of the people that were staying here, especially the women with children.

Natasha: The McDowell County Sheriff Department was here 24 hours a day. 

Jennifer: Catawba County Sheriff Department also had someone here to assist. They were always here because not only were they concerned about us but also we had so much product coming on to our church property that was just left sitting out. There’s only so much room to store things. Someone could have come and just taken everything. 

We also partnered with the McDowell Animal Shelter and Hickory’s Animal Shelter. They brought us a second Cast trailer for our shelter guests’ animals. The Animal Shelter provided 24 hour care. They sat in their cars in the middle of the hurricane making sure those animals were okay because that’s just what they do.

Jennifer: We aren’t a Red Cross shelter but we do have a Red Cross trailer to provide cots, bedding, some linens, and individual toiletry bags. We were able to give towels, washcloths, blankets, pillows, and toiletry items to everyone that came through the shelter.

The Red Cross came in to meet with us with the intention of eventually taking over the shelter. We gave them a tour of each area. By the time they came, we were a well oiled machine. They said they’d make a decision in a few days. They came back for another tour, then said they had nothing more they could offer us. “You’re doing a great job, we're not taking over this shelter, let us know if you need help.” From that day forward, a Red Cross volunteer showed up at our shelter everyday to bring us supplies even if it was just a pack of pens. That made me feel good that they thought we were doing a good job but still wanted to come in to ask if we needed anything. They just wanted to come in and be a part of it. Their volunteers were also able to get a hot meal, a hug, some snacks, and baked goods from people in the community. 

Jennifer: Not only did we have our wonderful church volunteers but we also had people that would show up at the front door from out of state, from all over, just wanting to help. We started sheltering them here inside the sanctuary as we didn’t put displaced guests in there. We had a group of chainsaw crews that made a circle in the parking lot and camped in their pickups. They didn’t really need the shelter; they just needed somewhere to park and shower. One night I think we had 300 people here to shower. Because a lot of people didn’t have power and water, they could come here to shower. They didn’t have to stay at the shelter to have access to our showers. 

Natasha: There were so many different, ordinary people coming in, just wanting to do something. We would look out the window and see them outside on the sidewalk praying. It was unlike any kind of situation I’ve ever experienced. While I hope and pray we never have to do it again, if it did, we’d be right back here doing it. 

Jennifer: Our guests saw how much we were giving to them and they wanted to give back. They started a schedule to clean the bathrooms and empty the trash.

Natasha: A lot of that stuff, we didn’t even ask them to do it. I said one time to Jennifer, “I’m going to go check the trash,” and I walked in there and it was empty. 

Jacob: Everyone got involved. People that had been without a home for some time helped with those tasks like emptying trash cans. I believe it was because of Jennifer, Natasha, and the other volunteers. No one was treated differently than anyone else. No one got “the better bed.” We were all showering in the same place. We were all doing it together. Caring for people who normally are not treated as equal is the best thing we can do. We had people from all walks of life coming in, some with language barriers, but they still got served. They were still cared for.

Natasha: Jennifer’s daughter Amy and my daughter Sierra were here. I never once heard either of them say they didn’t want to do something. This experience changed their lives. Sierra stepped in and did what was asked of her without the typical teenager arguments. It brought out more of a leadership tendency in both of them that we may not have ever seen if not for something like this. Now they're both going into the medical field. There were positives that came out of such a terrible situation. Bonds that may have been already formed, grew stronger. 

Natasha: We had planned to do pasta one night but we didn’t have bread to go with it. Two ladies from Ohio showed up in a minivan saying they had some stuff for us if we’d like to take it. It was mainly food. They had gardens and brought fresh fruits and vegetables. I said, “Bless you, these people would love to have fresh produce!” When she opened up the back of her van, there were bags upon bags of french bread. I said, “How did you know that we just had this conversation? I just said we needed bread for tonight’s supper. How did you know?” She stood there and cried. She said something told them to get in the car and drive here. They came to the  gas station up by the interstate. They hadn’t found anywhere that was open to take stuff. At the gas station, they asked where they could take the supplies and were told that Glenwood Baptist Church is one of the biggest shelters in the area and it was just about 5 minutes away. God was in the middle of all of it. He knew what was going to happen. He knew to this day we’d still be talking about this. 

Jacob: The devil set up situations that were obviously meant to try to destroy what we did here but Glenwood is still thriving. Glenwood is still doing great things and it’s partly due to people like these 2 ladies that are willing to put in everything they’ve got.

Jennifer: No one left our shelter and went to another shelter unless they had a medical need we couldn’t take care of here. I had a wonderful partner Carla that worked for DSS. It was our goal to make sure that everyone leaving our shelter had somewhere to go- that they weren’t homeless when they left here. They may have gone to a camper or to a hotel or maybe even to stay with a family member. We didn’t have an end date set. Our end date was when all of our guests could go where we knew they were safe. That was day 17. Our last guest left on day 17 to somewhere safe.

Jennifer: After day 17 and all of our guests were somewhere safe, we closed the shelter and everything was cleaned and supplies dispersed. I took the box of registration cards of everyone that came through the shelter home with me. I have that box of names of everyone that needed shelter, that volunteered, that was missing. I pray over that box and hope that everyone is home safe and has what they need. It's just a reminder of what we've been through. I hope that everyone that came through saw God here.