Hurricane Helene Disaster Relief
Walking in Love: How to Help WNC’s Post-Helene Recovery
Beginning the third day after Helene hit, St. James has been working in the relief and recovery efforts in Henderson County and WNC. Now that the immediate crisis has passed, St. James is now focusing on the long-term recovery in our region and county, which include needed financial assistance and hosting outside groups serving in the ongoing relief.
With just a few days of the storm, St. James was networking to get and distribute emergency relief supplies to Western North Carolina, including generators, chainsaws, nonperishable foods, baby supplies, pet food, and more. Thank you. Every donation of goods made a difference in the lives of people here in Western North Carolina.
We are committed to telling the story—and stories of hope—about the response to this storm from our region and our own parish. Below are a few of those stories.
Stories of Hope
Helene…One Year Later
Warden Report – Hurricane Helene and St. James
By: Bill Medina
This is a status report describing the efforts to date of St. James’s response to Hurricane Helene.After several days of heavy rain, the full fury of the storm hit on September 27. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, St. James, like most of the homes, businesses, churches and public buildings in the county, lost power and water. Within just a few days, donated supplies began pouring onto St. James – food, water, generators, chainsaws, diapers, pet food and more. Supplies were delivered by car, truck, and plane, some from as far as Alabama. In an outpouring of support, many parishioners came to the church in those first days and weeks to help unload supplies, sort them and help deliver them to locations around the county.
When St. James regained power and water, we became a neighborhood center for respite, shelter, to charge cell phones, and to pick up water and food. World Central Kitchen set up a tent in the parking lot to provide free meals for anyone who needed them.
Cash donations began flowing into St. James within days of the storm, some from personal contacts and some from people who learned of St. James’s relief efforts. The majority of the funds were donated over the next three months with the largest single donation, a gift of stock, from a donor in Minnesota. The stock was sold and deposited in early January. The donations were placed in two funds – an unrestricted Hurricane Helene Relief Fund with $135,794.73; and a restricted fund with $306,091.49 (from the Minnesota donor) with a donor-imposed limit of $500 per family.
The Vestry established an ad hoc committee to determine how to responsibly distribute these funds. Members include David Henson, Tom Morgan, Matt Henry, Kathryn Wells and Bill Medina.
The committee held its first meeting January 13, 2025. The most urgent need was felt to be food and household supplies. $50,000 was used to purchase gift cards – $25,000 from Ingles and $25,000 from Walmart. For several reasons, the committee decided to distribute most of the money through area nonprofits. A first round of checks went out February 25 and a second round on March 19. As of July, distributions are as follows:
Gift cards
Safelight – $17,500
Salvation Army – $17,500
Other – $15,000 (includes cards distributed in Bat Cave and Chimney Rock)
Grants
As of July, 2025, remaining funds are:
$25,637 – Unrestricted Fund
$145,091 – Restricted Fund
The committee has a goal of distributing the remaining funds before the end of the year.
Thanks to the remarkable generosity of a number of individuals, St. James has been able to help hundreds of families in a time of crisis. We would like to share a few of their stories.
The home of a single mother and her teenage daughter was split in two when a massive tree fell on the house. With the assistance of the HAC, they were able to move back into their home in July. An elderly lady’s home was badly damaged when two trees fell on her house. HAC was able to offer her temporary housing in a camper while funds received from St. James were used to repair her home. She is now back in her safe, restored home.
In early June, IAM assisted a 54 year old neighbor who came in for assistance with her Duke Energy bill of $763.67. She lost two sisters in the hurricane, had just lost her job and was deeply depressed. IAM paid her electric bill, provided food assistance, helped her with her budget, and gave her information about employment opportunities. In mid June, a 55 year old man with a teenage son and daughter sought help from IAM with an overdue rent payment of $1,360. He works in the food service industry but the restaurant was closed for eight weeks after Helene and when the restaurant reopened his hours were cut from five days a week to two days a week. He is seeking new employment. IAM provided the family with rent assistance and food.
During the first three months of 2025, Pisgah Legal Services helped 1,427 Henderson County residents in 564 cases. The grants from St. James provided much needed support for a number of these cases.
Caja Solidaria used our grants to help five families – replacing kitchen appliances, a washer-dryer, to repair a culvert and restore driveway access, and pay a past-due electric bill.
Nearly all these donations came from outside the parish. We believe this remarkable generosity was prompted in large part by the years-in the-making relationship between St. James and the larger community and by the tremendous volunteer efforts of members of the parish in the first days after the storm.
After a natural disaster of this magnitude, our efforts may seem puny. But as these stories illustrate, they are not. Our actions create ripples. As St. Paul reminded us in the readings a few weeks ago: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right… so then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all…”
A Gathering of Gifts: iCreatives Hold Holiday Project at St. James
Members of iCreatives and La Capilla wrap gifts together.
During Christmastide, St. James was filled with gifts from around the country to be distributed to our local Latino community who were hit hard by Helene. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, gifts were shipped to St. James for the annual Holiday Project by iCreatives, a nationwide creative agency based in Florida.
Working with the Rev. Canon Oscar Rozo of the Diocese of Western North Carolina, Father Miguel Alvarez of La Capilla, and David+, iCreatives, along with members of La Capilla, sorted, wrapped, and handed out Christmas gifts to dozens of children on Sunday, Jan. 5. See more photos and a video of the event by clicking here..Here is a note from iCreatives president, Steve Cohen, to all who helped make this event such an incredible success:
I want to take a moment to personally thank you for your trust, generosity, and willingness to take a chance on supporting a cause led by a complete stranger, a stranger who now feels as a friend to a wonderful community. The event was truly a success.
Because of your help, the children we met were given a much-needed distraction from the hardships they’re facing. Their smiles and excitement reminded us all why we do what we do.One story that stood out to me was from a teenage girl who received a Shark Blanket. Her family has been struggling to keep their home warm, and this simple gift brought her a sense of comfort and security that words can barely describe. There were many more stories like hers—heart-wrenching, yet filled with gratitude.
For those who were not able to attend, during the event, we shared a message from the Deacon Frank Serrano. His church was our very first holiday project in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. His words served as a powerful message of hope.
Adriana Chavela of the “Hola Carolina” group was gracious enough to read Deacon Frank’s message out loud. Her group was one of the many volunteer organizations and churches that helped make the day possible. Her voice cracked with emotion as she read the words of hope and sympathy—it was a deeply moving moment.
This is what makes all of you so special. It’s not just the work you do, but the heart behind it.
Thank you for bringing that spirit to help us with our small holiday mission.
With deepest gratitude,
Steven
St. James hosts Sewanee Hurricane Relief Team
The Sewanee team surveys damage from Helene in Bat Cave
This week, a group of young adults and two leaders have been using St. James as their base of operations to assist in the hurricane relief work in Bat Cave.
Lauren Goodpaster, director of Outreach & Service-Away Programs at University of the South, is leading the team and has been working with David+, our rector, and the Rev. John Roberts of Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave to assist local residents with the ongoing clean-up and continued sorting of needed relief goods.
Because our parish recently renovated the Cox House, upgraded the kitchen, and updated the St. James Room, we have been able to provide needed overnight space with shower facilities (in the Cox House and priest sacristy) without charge to the hard-working mission team. The team also participated in Sunday’s service, being blessed and commissioned by our new interim associate, the Rev. Kellie Wilson, and attended the Hendersonville Deanery Feast of the Epiphany Eucharist and potluck at Kanuga.
The Rev. John Roberts, rector of Transfiguration Bat Cave, with the Sewanee team
We give thanks for this group’s willingness to literally get their hands dirty in the work of relief and share God’s love through their own labor! We look forward to sharing more about their time serving in Bat Cave.
From Andrew and Kathryn
Updated life lessons from Helene, 10/13/2024
As a boy growing up, my (Andrew) mom often said that a lot of Christian faith and compassion can be demonstrated by showing up with a chicken and rice casserole and listening. She said you cannot fix the problem that another person or family has, but you can show them they are not alone.
Sunday, under the bright blue sky that was so beautiful after the Thursday-Friday storm, I found a Helene version of my mother’s wisdom that love, grace, and hope has many forms. I would add that compassion is showing up with ham and cheese sandwiches, cold water, work gloves and a chainsaw. Also, for doing good stuff and finding out where to go, I would like to add Google maps to the treasures of the Magi!
Helene gave us the opportunity to learn, again, and live these lessons. On Monday, after the storm raged Thursday and Friday and nearly all of us had no power, few had water, and cell service was spotty at best, Fr David Henson called who could hear to St James to meet in the parish hall and began the process of healing, assessment, outreach, and planning how to help. We asked for names of people to visit.
Monday afternoon, after a trip to upstate SC to get food for the shelter, gas, and the precious commodity- ice, we returned to Hendersonville and received names of parishioners to visit. After nightfall on Monday, we found our way to a parishioner’s dark house, the road blocked by a large tree just beyond her drive and brought her ice. We told her we would be back the next day and check on her. We have visited and helped her with food, hot coffee in a thermos, batteries and a lantern, a cooler with frozen water bottles, and water to drink.
This has been and will continue to be a long journey, but in faith, none are alone. We have work gloves in the car.
From Sue
It rained all day Thursday. The wind was fierce on Friday. The electricity went out Friday afternoon. The house was dark and weary Friday night. Early Saturday morning someone knocked on my back door before I was ready to get up. When I opened the door, it was Barbara with a cup of coffee she had gotten from a neighbor who had a generator. We had shared the coffee and talked for a good while when she said, “I want to use your car”. That was fine with me, but she added, “I want you to get dressed and let’s go check on some people”.
We went to Shirley’s to see how she was. She was right shaken up by the storm and the reports coming in of the destruction and missing people. We invited her to go with us, but she needed to stay home and take in what was going on.
Later in the day, Barbara went to Judith’s house. She was in a mess with a hot water heater that had malfunctioned and her basement was a mess. There were trees down around her place and she could not get out. Barbara took her home to her house.
Barbara and I went by to check on several ladies we know who live alone.
For the next week, we kept tabs on Shirley, and Barbara kept Judith and her little pup, Heidi. We shared meals. We learned that many of our friends had found safety with family or neighbors. Later in the week five of us girls including Elaine went out for lunch and spent time discussing what had happened and encouraging each other. I feel blessed to have been checked on and included with such a special group of dear friends. I appreciate Barbara for pulling us all together in such a caring way.
Let Light Perpetual Shine Upon Them: A List of the Dead from Helene
This Sunday, as part of our All Saints’ and All Souls’ commemorations, St. James will be offering special prayers for those who have died. It’s traditional in the church to list the names of the dead at these services. However, since an official list of the names of the dead has not yet been released, that holy task has proven difficult. St. James has compiled a list of those who have died as a direct result of the Hurricane Helene. While not an official list, we have verified, to the best of our ability, each name from the public record—either a reputable news source, law enforcement or government report, or an obituary which self-reports Helene as the cause of death. Their stories are harrowing and heartbreaking, but it is so vital that the scope of the human impact of this storm is not lost. The list includes names from Western North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee and does not include those who are presumed dead or still missing.
We invite you to add your own names of those you know have died, to join us in worship, either in person or online this Sunday at 5 p.m., or to use this list in your prayer and worship services for All Saints’ or All Souls’.
Keith Max Arvey, Stephen Ayers, Sabrina Barnett, Lisa Peeler Brady, Lester A. Brown, Alvaro Burgos-Guitierrez, Ceresa Butler, Rocco Chieco, Kathy Chieco, Angie Craig, Ronnie Craig, Sandy Craig, Charles Daly Dean III, James Dockery, Judy Dockery, May Drye, Micah Drye, Nora Drye, Micheal Drye, Sarah Ann Farr, Fay Farr Webber, Alex Fields, Sandy Lee Fisher, Annamaria Fletcher, Bobby Jean Foster, Brian Gaddis, Chase Garrell, Battalion Chief Tony Garrison, Melissa Guinn, James Harbison, Gordon Hargrove, Sherry Hart, Donna Hart, Jody Henderson, Monica Hernandez, Bertha Mendoza, Johnny Wayne Peterson, Jerry Hunter, Lula Jackson, Omar Khan, Jessica Kirby, Aaron Marshall Lance, Jim Lau, Melissa Lawrence-Neislar, Julie Ann Le Roux, Moreno Arnez-Maddox, Shirley Maureen Bellfy Mains, Phyllis Ann Matherson, Angie Maybin Walker, Karen Denise McCall, Boone McCrary, Lyn McFarland, Patrick Andrew McClean, Caleb Newton Meister, Tetiana Novitnia, Anastasia Novitnia-Segen, Dmytro Segen, Yevhenii Segen, Nola and Robert Ramsuer, Shirley Ray, Knox Petrucci, Alison Wisely, Felix Wisely, Lucas Wisely, Jean Marie Obrist, Michael Obrist, Christopher Mark Owens, Freddie Pack, Terri Pack, Leandra Lee Palmer, James Walter Parrish, Lisa Peeler Brady, Derrill Eugene Pitts, Lisa Plemmons, Sandra Rogers, Eileen Louise Rouchau Myers, Robert Ross, David Russell, Robert Brandon Ruppe, Jerry Savage, Marcia Savage, Christine Lynn Schmeiske, Ralph Selle, Jimmy Souther, Lois Souther, Kim Stepp, Bruce Tipton, Jimmy Tucker, Lidia Verdugo, Jimmy Lee Wall, Jeff Weems, Kobe Williams, Khazmir Williams, Khyzer Williams, Daniel Wright, Evelyn Wright, Samira Zoobi.
Note: If any name on this list is inaccurate, please let us know so we can correct it.
Faith Amid the Storm: St. James Responds to Helene Impact
Oct. 27, 2024
Dear sisters and brothers,
Over the past two weeks, as we’ve emerged from the fog of disaster, more than one of my clergy colleagues has whispered to me, or I to them, “How in the world are we going to do stewardship this year?”
Sure we still have bills and salaries to pay, programs to fund, and a building to tend, but many of us are hurting and grieving, too. There is a certain amount of awkwardness, in the midst of so much need in our region, to remind folks to pledge.
So what do you say about stewardship to a people who have just lived through a disaster?
Perhaps there’s nothing much to say at all. Maybe we simply hold up who this parish has been for the past month, a beacon of hope, help, and healing in our community. Truthfully, since Helene ripped through our region, I have been a witness to the most powerful stewardship sermon unfolding at our parish. Rather than simply proclaiming a stewardship sermon from the pulpit, I have watched you preach the importance of stewardship with your lives, with your own hands, gifts, labor, dedication, and extraordinary generosity of time, talent, and treasure in the midst of the worst disaster in the history of Western North Carolina.
You have embodied stewardship—stewarding our resources for the good of others—and you have been bearers of the Gospel in the world.
And it felt transformative. The Spirit was alive and moving among us. I think most of us felt it.
We felt how transformative it was for us to give of ourselves, how it drew us closer to God and made us see the world in a different light. We felt how transformative it was to receive the gifts of others when we needed them, how it humbled us when someone made us a hot meal or checked on us to make sure we were okay.
In the midst of what felt like hell, we caught a glimpse of a world made right, the kingdom of God, where everyone had enough, no one wanted too much, and every stranger became a neighbor to love.
In some ways, the storm’s impact has highlighted just how critical a strong, stable, and energized parish is, not just for ourselves, but for our community as well. Because for generations we have stewarded this sacred space faithfully, we were able to leverage it to take in donated goods and get them to others in need. Because of our stewardship here, our staff was able to return to work and serve the parish within three days of the storm, knowing their jobs were secure. Because of your stewardship of your own life and faith, more than 100 members of our parish have been actively involved in relief efforts at St. James and untold more out in the community.
Still, it must be said that the storm might have impacted you personally and financially. If so, and giving isn’t a possibility this year or has limited your ability, please remember part of stewardship and faithfulness is accepting help when we need it just as much as giving it when we are able. Because of that, if you are able to give this year, your giving is especially important to maintain the vitality of this parish in the coming year of recovery.
Here is what I do know. More than anything else, I witnessed God’s abundance through the overflowing generosity of friends, neighbors, and parishes from around the region who showed up and said, “Let me help. Here am I. Send me!” Small gifts and simple gifts sometimes were the most meaningful and impacted people the most—a fresh bunch of bananas, a grocery run, a hot, homemade meal, a quick check or visit. Every offering mattered and every gift matters. After the past month, I trust, now more than ever, St. James will have everything we need to continue to walk in love and to do the work God has called us to in this world.
With awe and thanks,
David+
World Central Kitchen sets up shop at St. James
Beginning, Thursday, Oct. 17, World Central Kitchen has set up its Henderson County hub at St. James Episcopal Church to provide hot meals to anyone.
Immediately following the disaster, St. James and World Central Kitchen representatives worked together to find distribution locations in the rural and more remote areas of our county. Now that those sites have been established, the organization asked St. James to act as a hub for these sites to pick up hot meals.
In addition, 200+ meals will be available daily at St. James, beginning at around 12:30 p.m. until they run out. Volunteers are needed to pick up meals for distribution sites and to serve hot meals throughout the day. Anyone can volunteer by texting 202-880-6138.
World Central Kitchen is an internationally renowned relief organization that provides chef-made hot meals to disaster impacted communities around the globe, and St. James is proud and honored to be a small part of the good work they are doing in Western North Carolina.
Making a Meal in the Dark: Feed the Kids Responds to the Disaster
In less than a week and without any power at the church, our Feed the Kids team had already organized to prepare and serve a meal for 150 at the nearby Salvation Army branch in downtown Hendersonville.
During our parish planning session on Monday, Sept. 30, we thought about what we are already good at and what systems already exist at St. James that can easily be activated to serve our neighbors. Feed the Kids was an immediate answer. This long-time ministry in Hendersonville, which has its genesis at St. James, was perfectly poised to walk in love in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, and by Wednesday, Oct. 2 they had delivered, literally.
Led by Carole Haskell, Vince Schwager, and Patti Brotherton, and assisted by many more parishioners, our team managed, in the midst of lack, to create a delicious meal of meat and vegan baked ziti that both fed those in need in Hendersonville and provided a much-needed break to the Salvation Army meal team who had been offering meals twice a day since the storm hit. Somehow, by some stroke of miracle, they were able to get both ground beef and cheese when grocery stores were still closed and power still out!
It was a true example of how to walk in love and sharing whatever resources we had on hand and were able to muster up.
From Lee
As an amateur radio operator, about a week before the storm was predicted to hit, the radio frequencies were full of chatter of folks preparing for the storm and how organizations were going to respond.
I spent the Saturday and Sunday after the storm driving around southern Greenville County, reporting locations that were open, selling gas and food, taking cash and/or cards, reporting traffic lights that were out and roads that were closed. This information was being passed on to first responders over the amateur radio frequencies.
During the week after, as we’re relaying information, we start to hear stories. Heartwarming stories, but also heartbreaking stories.
We were relayed that a man had been reunited with his family, and everyone was in good health and not injured. And in the same transmission that same family found out they lost everything they had.
But they still had each other.
And they had a lot of people praying for them.
From Wendy
A friend in East Flat Rock heard his neighbor’s mom in Tuxedo had fallen on the day of the storm and broke her hip. He took his neighbor in his truck and waited with them until the EMS arrived. They took her by ambulance to Grove Street in Hendersonville and then BY BOAT to the hospital. She had indeed broken her hip. Heroes everywhere!