Facing Helene with courage, kindness and generosity: The N&O Tar Heels of the Year
Well ahead of Hurricane Helene, weather forecasters said the system could bring catastrophic rainfall and powerful winds from where it came ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast all the way to the southern Appalachian mountains.
In retrospect, what might have been most predictable about the storm was how people would respond to the devastation it wrought.
Especially in North Carolina, where Helene did its worst, people have done their best.
A disaster on the magnitude of Helene, the most destructive in North Carolina history, comes in phases.
As the storm made its way north from the Gulf, power company crews stationed themselves where they would be poised to go to work. Swift-water rescuers and search teams braced for action. Fire and police departments went door to door in pouring rain to tell people in especially vulnerable places they ought to get out.
When the creeks turned into rivers and the rivers raged, Eddie Hunnell put on a life vest and swam out to save a stranger as the house around her collapsed in the current in Grassy Creek. Firefighter Tony Garrison and his nephew, Brandon Ruppe, tried to rescue 11 members of one extended family in Fairview. N.C. Department of Transportation engineer Daniel Ross slipped away from work to help pluck people from mobile homes on swollen Jonathan Creek.
When the rivers went down, an army came up, volunteers who saw photos and videos of what had happened and knew only that they had to help. Armed with chainsaws and shovels, they came forth in off-road vehicles, National Guard transport trucks, bulldozers and excavators. They towed trailers stuffed with water bottles, canned goods and space heaters.
They cooked and served hot meals. They scraped the mud out of houses. They sorted donated clothes. They raised money. Sometimes, they just listened as residents talked.
Now that recovery has begun, the folks TV’s Mr. Rogers called “the helpers” are still at work, pulling down drywall and picking up debris. They’re donating recreational vehicles and constructing tiny homes to help fill the housing gap, and building temporary roads to connect communities. They’re replacing people’s musical instruments and honey bees, and returning family Bibles that washed downstream.
The end of the year is a good time to look back on the heroic efforts of those who helped Western North Carolina residents survive Helene, those who launched the recovery process and those committed to helping sustain the region into the future.
The News & Observer honors the people profiled here as 2024’s Tar Heels of the Year, along with the unnamed thousands of others whose work and good will they represent. With every truckload of supplies they bring and every hour of volunteer labor they provide, these helpers bring hope to the mountains.
This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Facing Helene with courage, kindness and generosity: The N&O Tar Heels of the Year."
