The pictures are terrible, the stories are hard to listen to and the road ahead is very long.
As you can probably tell from the focus of this website, we love Western North Carolina. We have spent countless weekends and holidays exploring these communities and the trails that connect them. Our kids have learned so much about nature, awe, physical endurance, and thrill in those mountains and valleys. We’ve sat in solitude and soaked our weary toes in waterfalls, gazed at stars, and met countless people from in and around those communities.
It has been heartbreaking to witness the sheer destruction and devastation. Knowing these areas I’m convinced that we haven’t seen the worst just yet. What can be done? I’ll tell you.
How to help.
First and foremost, don’t go there unless you have a skill that be used to assist these communities. This is not a time for backpacking, hiking, kayaking, or biking. Getting hurt and requiring a rescue would only make things worse for a community already strained. Western NC should be considered off limits for a while. Let me point out here, that this is a shame. Western North Carolina is going to need our tourist dollars and they are not going to be coming in for a while. I plan to head to the mountains as soon as we can where that doesn’t negatively impact the communities we’re visiting, but that’s a long way away.
Take supplies to a firehouse near the effected areas. Shelf stable food, bottled water, water filters, camping stoves, these are all critical equipment at this point in time.
Donate to the Hurricane Recovery set up by the State of North Carolina and being managed by the United Way.
Keep these folks in your prayers.
Thanks for reading.
Shawn
