Hurricane Helene: We lost a mountainside!

This is our harrowing experience of living through Hurricane Helene in Burnsville, NC. Because so many have suffered so much more, I've hesitated to even post this. We made it out (obviously), and after a couple of weeks to recover physically and get our car, everything for us was back to normal. But for tens of thousands in North Carolina it will never be the same again. Please continue to pray for them. As a reminder, here are some stats on the hurricane - the largest natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina.
-100,000+ homes destroyed in NC
-6,000 miles of roads
-1,000 bridges
-The storm was 400 miles wide
-140 MPH winds
-219 lives lost
I've tried to balance showing you what it was like while not boring you with hours of the same thing over and over - but that's what it was. The storm stalled over Tennessee and we sat through seven or eight hours of lashing wind and torrential rain. After a while it got boring -- until the hillside in front of the cabin started falling away. Then it got TOO exciting.
We did not get all the footage we would have in normal circumstances. With no way to recharge our phones, and no thought in that moment of "making a video", we still have enough to tell the story. You can imagine days of drudgery, tedium, and hard work digging out. Penetrating dampness in everything - clothes, bedding, furniture. The nights were darkness and silence and the days were labor, with food and water rationing. There was no way to shower and bathroom time was a challenge. By day five we were exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. As we left and put some distance behind us, there was a palpable feeling of the heightened adrenaline leaving us.
Months later, engineers are still studying whether the soil can be restored, shored up, and stabilized enough to allow the owner to move back in. We are cautiously optimistic. No one living on a mountainside would normally carry flood insurance or a landslide rider, For that reason, most of these people, including this cabin owner, are being denied by their insurance companies. Many have lost most or all of their life savings. Please consider helping if you can. Links are below. While FEMA was "setting up operations," Samaritan's Purse already had teams of hundreds of volunteers scooping, shoveling, cleaning, and rebuilding.
Links to help out:
Jones Center for Leadership and Service: leadserve.utk....
Samaritan's Purse: www.samaritans...
Salvation Army: www.salvationa...
American Red Cross: www.redcross.o...
Because of our extended time there, we have made lifetime friends from this lovely little town. The hills of north Georgia and western North Carolina have always been a favorite place for us. Now the connection is deeper and will for a lifetime evoke strong memories and emotions.