Disaster Date:09/27/2024
West Asheville, NC
Hurricanes
What Happened
Thursday September 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Big Bend area of Florida. The storm pushed inland into Georgia, South and North Carolina and southern Virginia. Western North Carolina appears to be especially hard hit. At least 200 people died. Rescue crews battled mudslides, flood waters, and washed out roadways. MDS is renovating a church for future volunteers and then in the fall of 2025 will begin repairing homes.
What MDS Is Doing
MDS Volunteers will work on repair and new builds.
Location
Asheville is a city in western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s known for a vibrant arts scene and historic architecture, including the dome-topped Basilica of Saint Lawrence. The vast 19th-century Biltmore estate displays artwork by masters like Renoir. The Downtown Art District is filled with galleries and museums, and in the nearby River Arts District, former factory buildings house artists' studios.
Stories from the Field
Weekly Reports
I have camped under the stars in a lot of places over my 76 years, from the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, to the shores of Lake Guri in Venezuela and up near timberline in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains of Colorado. When waking up outdoors...
I am partial to songs that originate in Texas, but I admit that many great songs come from other places. Will Kimbrough, born in southern Alabama, growing up with the traffic and ideas flowing along US 90, the Gulf Coast Highway, has written songs...
This week’s work was driveway and road repair for several families. The crews are experienced road builders and they worked hard completing projects. Work involved digging out and installing new culverts, grading roads and cleaning up debris...
