Donations have poured in from across the country for Hurricane Helene survivors in the Appalachians, but the people most in need still don't have homes to store any of those supplies.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Safely tucked underneath that blue tarp is Jennifer Grant's entire world.
00:05Her three dogs and two cats are warm inside, protected from bitter cold
00:10temperatures and a biting wind as Jennifer gets ready to spend another
00:14night sleeping in her car after Helene destroyed the only home she knew.
00:18There's days that I cry, but I try to stay even more happy. There's people that watch
00:22their parents and their nephew leave, you know, in the river and they died, you
00:26know, like I didn't have any of that. Jennifer lived in Beacon Village, a
00:30historic neighborhood in Swannanoa, North Carolina, that has been literally wiped
00:34off the map. Driving into Swannanoa, it's hard to find much progress along the
00:39main road that now defines what a hurricane-ravaged town looks like in the
00:44Blue Ridge Mountains. Nearly three months later, almost everything is still buried
00:48in mud. There were nearly 75 homes in this community alone. Now, less than a
00:54dozen still stand, but are completely uninhabitable. Volunteers are still
00:59donating their time in this part of western North Carolina, but those numbers
01:02are starting to dwindle as time marches on. There are supplies from all over
01:07North Carolina, South Carolina, and all across the country. They're stacked up in
01:12these tents, but the people that need them don't have any homes to put them in.
01:16I do know people who have died and people who have pretty much lost
01:20everything. People that need things are people that need their houses rebuilt
01:23so far. New construction is almost unheard of in these parts of Swannanoa.
01:28People come from Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, people coming
01:32from everywhere just bringing blankets and trying to help. Jennifer's home rests
01:36on four good tires and the goodwill of total strangers. Her resiliency and
01:41determination, a bright silver lining. In a dark cloud, she's had to weather since
01:47Helene came to town. For AccuWeather, I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.