More than four months have passed since Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina, causing widespread death and destruction and leaving many homeless during the region’s cold winter months. 

Recovery efforts continue in and around the particularly hard-hit historic community of Asheville, and local parishes and Catholic organizations, including Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, remain on the ground, helping residents rebuild and return to normalcy.

Early in the morning of Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, permanent Deacon Mike Zboyovski of St. Eugene Church in Asheville, was home with his wife in Weaverville, a 12-minute drive from the parish. Hurricane Helene had struck — the power had gone out and the winds were heavy. Deacon Zboyovski turned on his generator and sat in the kitchen making coffee. Then it happened.

“We heard what sounded like a cannon go off,” he recalled to the Register.

The couple discovered that a large beech tree alongside the house had crashed through the roof into the master bedroom, crushing the bed that they had been laying in just 15 minutes before.

“The insulation that had been in the ceiling had been torn apart, so it looked like it was snowing,” he recounted. “Rain water was pouring in. We realized how fortunate we had been.”

Trees had fallen across his lengthy driveway to the main road, and their adult son hiked in and helped Mike, with the aid of chainsaws, clear his driveway over the next day and a half.

When the deacon made his way to St. Eugene’s, he discovered that while there was no serious damage to the buildings, a transformer near the parish had been destroyed — leaving it for the next two weeks with only about 30% power. 

Now that more than four months have passed, services have been restored — water, power, sewage — and repairs on Deacon Zboyovski’s house are nearing completion and the assessment of damage to St. Eugene’s is evident. The reduced power severely damaged St. Eugene’s HVAC system; replacement equipment will cost the parish $200,000. While insurance payouts have subsidized some repair costs for both the deacon and the parish, much of the costs will be borne out of pocket. 

Many of the residents of Asheville and the surrounding areas, the deacon noted, are underinsured or not insured at all. Much of the damage in the area was caused by flooding, he added, and unless residents specifically had flood insurance in their coverage, it was not covered.

Another ongoing problem in the community, he continued, are the large piles of refuse throughout the area. “The area was really ravaged, and everywhere you go, you see piles of debris alongside the roads,” he explained.

Finding work is also a problem, as many of the area’s businesses were swept away in the flooding. Asheville is a tourist community, and many of the businesses that no longer exist include the many artisan shops in the River Arts District along Asheville’s French Broad River.

Despite the devastation, Deacon Zboyovski has been cheered by the generosity and words of support of many within the Diocese of Charlotte and beyond; one fourth-grade class in a Delaware parochial school sent notes of encouragement to St. Eugene’s, he recalled. At Christmas, donated gifts allowed the parish to give Christmas gifts to more than 700 families that otherwise would have gone without. For weeks, the parish was “jam-packed” with gifts of clothes, bikes, toys and more donated to the community.

“The beauty of giving and well-wishes that followed the tragedy was amazing,” he said. “That memory impresses me and will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

 

Parishes Mobilized

Catholic parishes throughout the Diocese of Charlotte have mobilized to help Hurricane Helene victims, including St. Andrew the Apostle in Mars Hill, which has two churches, St. Andrew and Sacred Heart in Burnsville. 

Despite their close proximity to Asheville (Mars Hill is 18 miles north), neither church nor parishioners experienced significant damage from Helene.

Both church sites have been transformed into relief supply centers to help the needy and displaced in the past several months with a variety of household items. 

In recent weeks, the items in greatest demand have been propane (mostly for heating) and medicine for colds/flu. The winter has been cold, with temperatures dropping to 8 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -20. While the temperature has warmed, the upcoming weeks are expected to bring rain.

Parish secretary Kelly Hansen has been coordinating the centers and said that the hurricane was horrible for many in the Asheville area. She gave the example of a father and his two teenage sons who had been living in a mobile home. rendered unlivable by Helene, who are now living in a small donated camper without access to water or sewage. Others had their homes survive but are flooded and are now experiencing difficulties with mold and mildew. One family the parish agreed to help by replacing the flooring on their home has experienced delays because their basement is still flooded.

The relief supply centers at St. Andrew will remain open through the end of March, according to pastor Father Anthony Mbanefo, when the parish will assess if there is a need to continue.

While Helene has been awful for many North Carolina residents, Hansen said, there has been one silver lining: She has been able to help those in need and meet new people, including fellow volunteers. “I am now friends with people who, before the hurricane, I had only previously seen sitting in church,” she said. “We have now come together with the same goal in mind: to help people who need help in any way we can.”

Noele Aabye is an Asheville resident who works in refugee resettlement with Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. During Hurricane Helene, she was sitting with her father in her parents’ Asheville home when she went out to her car to charge her phone, as the power was out. As she stood outside, she saw a large tree fall on the house. There was a moment of panic as she feared her family members had been crushed, but she was soon relieved to discover that no one had been injured. The house was a total loss, however.

Ongoing Need

Aabye noted that many of her refugee clients have lost their homes as well, and also vehicles, possessions and places of employment. One of the community’s biggest employers where some of her clients’ work, Walmart, was flooded and still remains closed.

Catholic Charities stepped in to help her and her clients with their emergency needs, starting with temporary housing.

Jesse Boeckemann, director of Catholic Charities’ regional office in Asheville and Aabye’s boss, noted that of the office’s 11 employees, six were adversely impacted by Hurricane Helene, including himself. “When I got up the morning of Friday, Sept. 27, I put my feet on the carpet and it felt like a sponge,” he recalled. “Water was coming up from below.”

He did what he could to save his possessions and was displaced from his home for 40 days. Besides those displaced, he had another employee who lost a vehicle. “Our staff was greatly affected by Helene.”

Gerry Carter, executive director and CEO of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, said Catholic Charities was “very active” in helping victims of Hurricane Helene, working with state and private organizations to rehouse those, including on his own staff, who were displaced. He pointed to the hard-hit community of Swannanoa, where the agency was working with a variety of other entities to rebuild 31 trailers that provided housing to a predominantly low-income Hispanic community without insurance. The first three trailers have been finished and reoccupied by families; he hopes the remaining 28 will be available for use in the next month or two.

He stressed that this was a community effort, with 1,000 volunteers involved, with Catholic Charities assisting with funding. “Our donors provided the funding for the heating and air conditioning units, as well as the insulation in the walls.”

While federal and private agencies have been active helping larger communities, the staff at Catholic Charities have also played an important role in helping smaller communities “pushed back from the road” that have not received significant attention. He pointed to a community of displaced persons living in campers who had run out of fuel for heating during the height of the winter cold. “We made some calls, and within an hour we had the fuel flowing again and the heat back on,” Carter said. “That is our charism: responding quickly and identifying communities in need that have not yet received help.”

Another project Catholic Charities is beginning is to help reestablish local businesses so they can start to employ the many in the region who are out of work. Carter applauded the continued support of Catholic Charities’ rebuilding efforts and stressed, “The need is incredible.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Click here to donate to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s relief efforts.