Hurricane Helene Story

From Heather Golden, Black Mountain, NC, via Facebook: Yesterday. Chrissy and I located a young girl with a 6 DAY OLD BABY in Lake Lure.

She had JUST given birth.

During the storm.

Alone.

(Via seeing an old man who waved at us with his dog who also needed dog food, which I happened to have…)

We were her first contact.

Before I left for our run (my car was water and med kits) I saw there was extra room. I could have loaded anything but for some reason I chose to load it down with baby supplies. Diapers, wipes, formula, bottles etc.

I had no idea I was going to actually need that stuff in real time. I just felt like I needed to load it in there. So I did. And we found the ONE person who needed it… urgently. Because she had 1 pre-made bottle left from her shower.

That….I can’t begin to describe what that was like.

I knew I was the only one that knew exactly where she was or how to get to her…so…

Today my mission was to take more supplies to her, but in reality, to convince her come with me. It took some time. She was scared. The water/mud was knee or waist deep, around her house.

I told her that yes, it was deep, but we would make it and to just trust me. Just give me the baby. So, I held Baby E and strapped my backpack tight (pulled straps tight so momma could hold onto me) to my back and told momma to hold on to me and just keep going. If we got stuck we could get out.

We did.

As we speak, “N.H. & Baby E.” have been extracted. I took them to a church, relatively close to her, to receive medical care and be reuinited with her loved ones.

I am still trying to process it.

Her boyfriend is still missing.

It’s gonna take me a minute.

Like, I’m okay…I’m safe…but I’m definitely traumatized.

But they’re okay. They’re alive. They’re safe. And that’s all that matters.

Good luck you two. I’ll always remember you.

(I had to do this today… We are having to do ALL of this by ourselves as a community…because we have no one else. It’s just us. And hey. Maybe it’s for the best. We’re actually getting pretty good at this.)

I messed up my radiator trying to get to her. But used some water to keep filling and cooling it down; as soon as I got back, some awesome guys started working on it and got it fixed up enough for me to get back to my husband! (Just glad I made it back!)

P.S. Please know, I didn’t write this for any kind of praise or glory or anything. I honestly figured it would get hidden like the rest till just now. I just know that this community is hurting deeply. And we need to see ANY kind of positivity amongst the despair right now.

So, It’s not about me. It’s about how WE…this community, has risen to the occasion to take care of our own. And it’s been a beautiful sight to behold.