• last year
An elderly couple isolated without power for a week after Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina have been saved by a team of locals who pulled off a mission to get them vital supplies. Helene wreaked havoc across the North Carolina mountains, downing trees, causing rivers to surge and cutting off power to many residents. In Creston, North Carolina, a team of local helpers from Phi Kappa Tau fraternity at Appalachian State University flagged a lady named Ally had been trapped in her farmhouse, where she had been standing on her porch looking down the mountain helplessly. The group were working with Trent Woodcock of TM Woodcock Construction, and so they began to devise a plan which would allow them to tackle the biggest obstacle of all: getting a generator around the river that ran in front of Ally's and her husband Gary’s home. One helper, Ryan Lampe, decided to take a route around the back of the farmhouse through the mountains, which allowed him to bypass the river and allow the team to successfully deliver a much-needed generator. Trent captured the team’s heroic work on video, which then saw them use a pully system to carry gas across the river and up to Ally and Gary’s home.
Transcript
00:00She was trapped without power for almost a week
00:03until Good Samaritans came to the rescue.
00:06This lady's trapped on this side of the river.
00:08You can see where her road has washed out.
00:10Trent's a local builder in North Carolina,
00:12and after Hurricane Helene,
00:14he drove around each day looking for people to help.
00:18You can see here we've got a big team,
00:20and we are gonna make it happen.
00:22I've seen boulders the size of dump trucks
00:25or school buses that were moved by this water
00:28just to show the powers.
00:29I mean, I've heard stories of folks saying,
00:31hey, it went from the riverbanks
00:32to halfway up my house in an hour,
00:35had absolutely no warning, absolutely no time.
00:38Once that storm hit and we saw the need,
00:40I just felt the urge to help.
00:42So they rallied up donations and bought 30 generators too.
00:46People's bridges were blown out
00:48or doors, you know, driveways were blocked.
00:50We were, you know, cutting our way in,
00:52sending 10 trucks a morning out,
00:54running supplies, running generators,
00:56you know, coming across elderly folks,
00:58maybe folks on CPAP machines
01:00that can't use those at night without power.
01:02And the Battersby's didn't have power either
01:05until Trent's team found them.
01:07Could see her standing on her porch
01:09and the bridge is just completely gone.
01:11You can tell she's had no contact from the other side.
01:14And she actually was like, no, don't, it's too dangerous.
01:16Don't cross.
01:17And we're like, no, we're gonna find a way.
01:19And they did.
01:20After a good Samaritan offered their tractor
01:23to help get a generator across.
01:25I see the tractor, I see the generator
01:28and the two guys putting it together.
01:30Wow, what a surprise.
01:33It was like a vision.
01:35I mean, I was just taken aback because I didn't expect it.
01:39I felt so grateful and it was gonna be so wonderful
01:42to have electricity and be able to have hot water
01:45and all that kind of stuff.
01:47We got it in.
01:48There's the lady and there's the tractor coming to her.
01:51And after getting them some much needed power,
01:54they sent over a few more things.
01:58Gas delivery.
02:00We can't be stopped.
02:02She's so excited.
02:03She's on the porch filming from the other side.
02:06To see all of these anonymous people
02:09come together to help us.
02:11It just gives you a lot of faith and a lot of,
02:13in people, you know.
02:16Good work boys.
02:17From the day this thing hit
02:18and I just saw all the struggle and just the devastation.
02:22I kind of just, I knew that there were people
02:24out there in the world that wanted to help.
02:26And I'm like, hey, you know,
02:27I think we can really put something together.
02:29This is a phenomenal example of brotherhood, really.
02:36Kindness.
02:37Kindness, generosity.
02:39Being able to just get them something essential
02:42to life that they need.
02:43Restoring hope in these people,
02:44letting them know that people know that they're there,
02:47that, you know, help is here.
02:49It's very, very heartwarming, for sure.
02:51And every day I would keep a journal
02:54and write everything that I was thankful for
02:56that happened that day.
02:58And it was just because you could forget it
03:00because one thing after another,
03:01bringing food or bringing gas.
03:03And it was too much to take in.
03:05So I just thought I'm not gonna lose this.
03:07I'm gonna write it down.
03:08Yeah, she journals.
03:09So.
03:11I keep it in my bad memory.

Recommended