'Astronomical' expense to rebuild after Hurricane Helene, says Asheville, NC survivor, age 90

The long rebuilding process is just beginning for many in Asheville, North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene devastated the community.

The storm dumped around 30 inches of rain in some places around western North Carolina, swelling rivers and causing catastrophic flooding and mudslides in many communities. Fatalities in North Carolina alone reached 102 this week.

Katherine Jowers, 90, who's lived in the same Asheville home for 54 years, didn't know how she was going to clean up before volunteers arrived last week at her door.

The water “started creeping up pretty fast,” Jowers recounted in an interview with The Center Square. Firemen evacuated Jowers as flood waters encroached on her home.

“I’ve been here 54 years and never experienced anything like this,” said Jowers, who didn’t have flood insurance. “I wasn’t prepared [and] I didn’t know what to do.”

In the weeks after the storm, Jowers went back to the house daily to try and clean up, mostly packing up and recovering personal items, before volunteers showed up to help.

Those volunteers came with Samaritan's Purse, the Christian humanitarian aid group headquartered in nearby Boone, after Jowers’ daughter put in a request for help.

“Without them, I don’t know what I would have done,” she said.

Jowers doesn’t know how she’ll be able to pay for remodeling without flood insurance, and hasn’t yet applied for FEMA aid. She said she was quoted $47,000 by a contractor for cleanup that Samaritan’s Purse is doing for free.

“I have no idea, this is going to be astronomical for me,” she said.

The volunteers at Jowers’ home worked to tear out drywall, insulation and nails in preparation for contractors.

“We’ve got almost 500 volunteers out in Asheville” as of Monday, Jodie Yoder, U.S. disaster relief program manager for Samaritan's Purse, told The Center Square.

For Yoder, who’s worked disaster sites all over the country, this disaster hit close to home.

“This hits a little different for us because this is in our backyard,” said Yoder, who lives in Hickory, 77 miles east of Asheville. “Some of our staff members in Boone were hit really hard [with] damage to their houses. There was still a commitment to get out the day after to start helping.”

“It’s different when it’s people you know, it’s community members you know,” she said.

As of Friday, over 10,000 volunteers in the Asheville area with Samaritan’s Purse have helped to complete more than 900 work requests out of over 2,500 total requests after Helene. The group also conducted more that 350 airlifts to provide supplies to affected areas.

“We’ll be here as long as we’re needed to be here,” Yoder said.