When Hurricane Helene hit, many local groups and individuals stepped up to provide crucial resources like food, water and shelter. Six months later, many of those groups are still active and redefining their roles in the community.
In Jackson County, a Sylva warehouse for disaster supplies is planning a sustainable future so that they can continue to support the region.
The warehouse now called Mountain CORE Mission is run by six core members and many volunteers from across the region and the country.
Chris Barranco runs warehouse operations and logistics at Mountain CORE Mission. He says that the loss of friends in nearby counties pushed him to help.
“There's a little survivor guilt here in Sylva because we were in the eye of the storm. That could have been us…You never know what could have happened,” Barranco said.
Immediately after the storm, Barranco says he went out looking for friends along the Toe River.
“That's what motivated me so much, having lost friends and many of them have not even been recovered,” Barranco said. He works at Innovation Brewing and the group started organizing donations at the Dillsboro location.
During the storm, supplies from across the country were sent to Western North Carolina but many locations couldn’t collect or distribute the items. Quickly, the group outgrew the brewery space and moved to a warehouse at Sylva Self Storage in early October.
This space has a crucial feature: a truck bay for tractor trailers. Eli Hashemi, who is a core member of the group, explained that in the first few weeks, semi-trucks were coming from all over the United States but hauls couldn’t be unloaded in many smaller venues.
“So we were able to take those in and make sure that they stayed in the region. And then distribute them,” Hashemi said. “If you'd have told any of us mid-September we'd be running a warehouse. We probably would have laughed at you, but we found our niche and how we can help best and that's what we do every day.”
The storage was originally given to the group for a discounted rate but now that the group plans to operate permanently the rent is going up. The warehouse rent will go up to six times the current rate on May 1. At that time, the group will also be downsizing into a 12,000 sq foot space and their borrowed forklift will need to be returned.
These changes are part of why the group is looking for community support - which has sustained them from the beginning Hashemi explained. She runs the Sylva Shopping Support Facebook page and the group helped connect resources and needs during the storm.
“In the first few days, the Sylva Shopping Support Facebook group is the way that we connected with nearly 6,000 locals to let them know what was going on and how they can help,” Hashemi said. She works full time at the Southwestern Commission.
The current 21,000-square-foot warehouse doesn’t usually supply community members directly but instead moves supplies from Jackson County where they are needed, often to other nonprofits. For example, the group provides supplies to Cornbread & Roses, St. Mary's Catholic Church, The Community Table and Operation Rising Sun.
Melissa Morris is another core member of the warehouse team. She says that she wasn’t able to travel across the region to help so it made sense for her to work at the warehouse.
“We do have a responsibility to help support our surrounding counties and communities,” Morris said.
When supplies are dropped off at the warehouse, crews and volunteers organize the boxes and donations into sections. Across the huge concrete area, boxes and plastic wrapped pallets sit under labels for “Baby,” “Medical Devices,” and more.
“We go through them and make sure that we provide the hubs that distribute directly to families and individuals donations with dignity. We make sure that those donations are of high quality and usable for that location,” explained Danielle Duffy, logistics coordinator and admin for the Warehouse. Her husband Colin Duffy is also part of the core team.
The crew keeps logs of available materials as well as specific requests. Sometimes a nonprofit might reach out for a specific item like a refrigerator and while it might not be currently in stock, the warehouse will keep that request to fill when they can.
Regularly, a nonprofit or group reaches out to the warehouse for supplies then a volunteer “shops” for the supplies in the warehouse. Those supplies are loaded onto the pallet carts and either picked up or delivered to that group.
“In those early days, we would always say pick with your heart. You know, if you feel like somebody is saying you should put those baby clothes in that load, do it,” Hashemi said.
Jackson County just out of Helene’s path
Jackson County was largely spared from the storm but there was still about $6.5 million in damages including about 40 homes.
Jackson County Emergency Management Director Todd Dillard told BPR that there were about 300 rescues but no deaths. Before the storm hit, there was about a foot of rain in the southern part of the county.
“The weather service was using language that I had never heard them use in Western North Carolina in my career,” Dillard said. “We still got a lot of rain and some really, really bad winds but nothing like neighbors to our east.”
The Canada Community and the southern end of Glenville and Cashiers were hit hardest, Dillard explained. He explained catastrophic flooding was avoided by the man-made lakes in the county that were built by Duke Energy.
The county supplied FEMA and state resources like MREs and water but he says meals and supplies were organized by nonprofits and churches in the county including the warehouse.
“They stood up and now they really took the bull by the horns because they were understaffed and overwhelmed there for several days when I was talking to them,” Dillard said. “But it's amazing how many people donated goods to the folks here in Jackson County.”
Six months later, relief efforts still needed
More than six months after Helene, storm recovery is still taking place across Western North Carolina. The warehouse realized that their work is still needed. The group registered as a nonprofit in January and rebranded with the name Mountain CORE Mission.
Gary Smith handles logistics and major donations. He also has the important job of driving the forklift in the warehouse. Smith explains that tracking donations directly after the storm was impossible but millions of pounds have moved through the warehouse.
“ln about five weeks from the end of October until just before Thanksgiving. We brought in about 56 containers that added up to about 2.2 million pounds of products,” he said.
Since January, the warehouse has continued to receive donations including over $10 million dollars worth of goods from Christian Appalachian Project of Kentucky and international organization Rise Against Hunger, according to the group.
Duffy explains that the group plans to be here for Helene relief and beyond.
“Finishing the job that we have here, being here until the job is done, but then being ready when new disasters spring up within our local community, within our region, and within our nation, that we can provide that support and aid that people provided for us at the beginning,” Duffy said. “And you know and I think that that's a really beautiful place to be in six months.”
For example, the warehouse sent supplies to Swain County for firefighters working on the recent Alarka Fire and to support communities ravaged by flooding in Kentucky last month.
Right now, the warehouse also has an intern from Western Carolina University. Connor Dietz is working as a hurricane relief assistant at the warehouse this semester .
“I've been seeing a lot of different places I've gone, how crazy it is and how bad it is still and I'm honestly grateful that I had this kind of opportunity to help those in need,” Dietz said.
Mountain CORE Mission is currently raising money to continue their work - and the increased rent.
“Our overriding goal is to become sustainable so that we are in place. We have a back stock of what's needed,” Smith said. “So the next time there is a disaster or a need for what we do, there's no lag time to set up. We want to have everything here and ready to go for any occasion for whatever arises for the for the immediate area, which is our focus, but also for all of our adjacent areas and and as far around the country as we can reach.”
On Saturday, Mountain CORE Mission is having a benefit event at Innovation Station in Dillsboro. The event will include musical performances from local musicians Savannah Page and Hot Dog Sunrise and a raffle with prizes from local businesses like Country Road Farms Nursery, In Your Ear Music Emporium and more. The event is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
