Western North Carolina - Tumblr Posts
Plea for Aid to Western North Carolina
"But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." 1 Corinthians 12:25-26
Please give whatever support you can to the relief efforts from Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina depends on the Body of Christ right now
Many of you may not be aware that this is a region that struggles tremendously with poverty even in the best of times. Many of my neighbors & fellow parishioners rely on welfare, government assistance, & charity programs. Many others live paycheck-to-paycheck. These people do not have savings, retirement accounts, or emergency funds that they can draw from. They need help. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ right now
I don't know the latest death toll - yesterday in Buncombe County (Asheville) it was 30, other counties have been slow to report the deaths until they can find family members to inform first. Houses have been swept away on the water. Bridges have collapsed & roads are washed out - some of these are the only entrance & exit to people who are now stranded without food, water, and medicine. Businesses have been leveled, and some of the ones still standing have been looted. Many people are still without water & power, including some of my coworkers. Many folks will now be jobless due to businesses being destroyed. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ to send help.
Please send whatever aid you can through reputable organizations like the Red Cross. Lives are at stake & the wellbeing of the survivors depends on you, my brothers & sisters in Christ.
It's inspiring to hear the entire continent mobilizing to save my neighbors in danger. But once everyone has been saved, there will be a lot of rebuilding to do before things feel back to normal. I was able to get out of my driveway for the first time since Friday, and it just felt surreal. I don't really know how else to describe it.
Please share this sentiment & charity opportunities as much as you can. And if you have friends & loved ones in the area, please reach out to them. They may not have cell or internet reception yet, but I can guarantee they will greatly appreciate it. Western North Carolina needs the Body of Christ - for relief, for prayers, & for comfort.
I'm grateful to God for keeping my friends & family safe throughout all this. I'm grateful for all of the prayers & support y'all have sent already. I'm grateful for all of the emergency crews & responders from across the country who have been working 24/7 to restore infrastructure & help people in peril.
I'm especially grateful to the iHeartRadio crew who has been broadcasting updates from local callers & government officials every day - from safety alerts to resources available to just giving people a voice & for giving us a voice to keep us company. It was a very lonely weekend - I did not know when power was going to be back, and kept my phone off to save battery basically from Friday evening until this morning. The only time I turned it on was to update my parents that I was okay, and then I turned it back off. The only other contact I had with the outside world was through the iHeartRadio broadcast, and honestly it makes me break down in tears thinking about how much their show helped me to not feel alone & to feel hopeful. They're good people.
I'm sorry if this is the billionth post like this y'all have seen this week, but I just needed to dump this out there. It's been a scary weekend, and all things considered I haven't really been in any serious danger. I can't imagine what the folks in the mountain are going through right now. But they need you, the Body of Christ.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27
My local news shared this photo from space, and I’m going to share it here. This is before and after Helene.
I can’t speak for other places, but even here along the SC coast- Sams, Costco, Walmart, and many of the grocery stores have been absolutely wiped out - and this time I’m very glad to see it. The locals here in droves have been gathering supplies to send to those in need. Specifically, there are two little airports in Georgetown and Conway. Several private aircraft owners have been taking donations to remote areas that have been stranded due to road outages. Several local businesses have been coordinating with them to gather and deliver supplies to the airport. Most local churches have been utilizing their resources to gather and get supplies and money to those in need.
I know there’s a bigger issue at hand. I know the government tends to ignore Appalachian people, that’s a conversation that others can attest to far greater than I can. A huge portion of this blog has always been dedicated to my love for Appalachia. I did call it home for a time, and it will always have a huge piece of my heart. All I know is as a South Carolinian, it’s at the forefront of our minds, on local news, and I can’t open my phone without seeing more information. That is because I have so many friends there. I know it may not be the same on a large scale, and I just hope this momentum of help does not fizzle out. But from a citizen standpoint, it’s been hard for a lot of us here to sit and live comfortably knowing our neighbors are suffering, so we do what we can.
I and many others have been helping coordinate donation collections so we can fill up trailers, semis, and anything else to get water, food, and so much other needed supplies. I have a good friend up in Boone, a chef, and many of her friends have banded together to take over local restaurants that sustained damage to prepare free hot meals for her community. I know she’s been directly taking donations in order to purchase food supplies so she can continue to feed her community. I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, and in the worst of them is when our communities really band together.
I know there’s such a long road ahead. I can’t even comprehend the damage. The death toll is over 130 last I checked, and hundreds are still missing and unaccounted for. Communities have disappeared and will never be the same again. It’s so bad. So if you can, send some money to a trusted organization, if your community is bringing in donations to the area. Do what you can. It’s hard to watch our government send an inconceivable amount of money to fund wars, but our neighbors will never see anything close to that type of funding.
See if there are any aircraft donation sites, those who are still stranded need help as they cannot travel to receive the donations otherwise. There are so many people who can’t flush, shower, drink, or anything because they do not have access to clean water. So many without a roof over their heads. People who still don’t know what happened to their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers are great and all, but take action where you can. If you live far away, and your community is not taking physical donations, I’d be happy to share some local places taking donations. Also, a quick internet search can get you that information too. Just make sure where you donate is going directly to the people in need.
If you are currently affected by this, and you or your community have specific needs that need to be met, feel free to share them so we can continue to get the word out.
Every bone in my body wants to get my boots on the ground there and volunteer and help, but I know right now, they don’t need a crowd- so I do what I can for now here. You can too.
ART RAFFLE TO SUPPORT WNC
About a week ago, my hometown of Asheville, NC along with so many other surrounding communities and other locations in Western North Carolina, faced heavy damages and losses as a result of Hurricane Helene.
In addition to making donations myself, I wanted to spread awareness by hosting an art raffle to support WNC during these difficult times.
Information:
To enter the raffle, please send me a screenshot of your donation to one of the following organizations: BeLoved Asheville, Pansy Collective (both of these organizations support the general WNC area)
For every $5 donation, you will be entered in the raffle
10 winners will be randomly selected to receive a free commission
Donations of $30 or more will receive a guaranteed commission.
The raffle will be closed and winners will be announced on October 14th.
For information about commissions from me, please refer to the carrd link in my bio on my profile.
Even if you are unable to donate, please help to continue spreading awareness for Western North Carolina during these difficult times.
posting here because this just doesn’t feel right to talk about in the horseimagebarn voice but this is extremely important to talk about.
my partner and i have returned to our hometown to stay with her family and my own has gotten a hotel here too (they moved to the town we currently live in after we did) so we are all safe and out of the thick of it
however there are tens of thousands of people who are not both in my own town and in the many surrounding it. appalachia will take an extremely long time to recover from this and there are more storms on the way. all i see on social media right now is people asking for shelter because their homes have been destroyed, or people asking for help searching for family members who are missing. hundreds of trees have fallen. hundreds of homes have flooded. roads are literally falling apart. preexisting sinkholes due to shitty pipes are opening up and consuming land. dams are on the verge of bursting and the only way to stop it is to release water so quickly it floods whole towns. all but one of our cell towers are down, so only people with at&t have service and the rest can’t contact anyone. over half the town still doesn’t have power. a major water supply issue occurred and the entire town is on a water boil order with no electricity to boil with. people are trapped in their homes and workplaces or out on the street because they have nowhere to go. law enforcement is blocking off roads but trapping people in the process. people have to be rescued by helicopter. our animal shelter has no water or power and boarding facilities have been flooded. entire villages like chimney rock nc are gone, and entire cities like asheville are cut off from the rest of the state and are completely inaccessible. ALL OF THE ROADS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ARE CLOSED. 400+ roads are closed because they are unsafe . that is INSANE!!!
when people say that climate change isn’t real, they don’t know what they’re talking about. climate change and its father capitalism are only going to continue to worsen lives in every way possible. i live in the mountains and our infrastructure is completely unprepared to handle hurricanes and it’s only going to get worse. it’s such a strange and eye-opening experience to live something like this when you think that it could never happen to you because that type of weather shouldn’t reach you in your environment. climate change doesn’t care where you live. it’s real.
western north carolina and the rest of the southeast that has been hit by helene need help. more people need to be talking about this so that the government DOES SOMETHING because the government historically fucking hates appalachia and it still does!!! the major state institution near me took DAYS to respond despite being the only place in town with power and wifi connection because they had to wait for the state to approve their response—they could have allowed thousands of people to evacuate days prior to the hurricane hitting us but they didn’t do anything before or after until it was too late!!! it’s bullshit!!! PLEASE get talking about this because something has to be done. climate change is going to continue happening and our mountains and the people in them are going to suffer immensely. hundreds if not thousands are now homeless. please talk about this look at the footage online of the wreckage and look how quickly our infrastructure crumbled. we need better. the people of appalachia deserve better.
i’ll get back to posting horses soon. but for now this is a lot. my friends are homeless and my family had to get off the mountain or be trapped there without power and water for days. we’re all safe but exhausted. i hope everyone who has been affected by this is staying safe. if you are in western nc, dm me. when i come back, if you’re in my area, im happy to bring supplies. stay safe everyone