Community Steps Up to Assist Hurricane Victims

Barnardsville, NC 28709

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Staff Writer

HARRISON – While Hayes Township resident Maye Tessner-Rood was enjoying her second trip to Scotland this fall, she received a call from her son Luke Tessner who informed of Hurricane Helene’s ravaging of North Carolina. More specifically in the area of Barnardsville, the town near Asheville where Luke was born. Noting that the residents of that community had assisted her at one time, she knew it was her opportunity to give back – and she didn’t hesitate.

While Luke Tessner and Brenda Poet had already started soliciting assistance in Clare County, they sought the help of Tessner-Rood as to how to get a larger effort started. Thus, when she arrived home and realized there was no time to organize a formal fundraising event, she put out the word on Facebook that there was urgent need – which began an “all hands on deck” movement. Contributions of life-sustaining essentials such as tripods for outdoor dutch oven cooking, tent shelters, food, clothing and much more, were collected – and in short order nine 13-hour trips were taken down to North Carolina.

“Organizations have been phenomenal,” she said. “We have taken already the original trips back and forth with pickup truck and trailers. We didn’t go down, the drivers went down and took it to centers.”

Tessner-Rood made the most recent trip with three other ladies just a little more than a month after Helene struck. She noted it was Wednesday through Sunday the week of Halloween, and that when she provided some Sam’s Club candy for children, they were surprised and delighted to receive that little bit of normal life. She also noted the insulin/test strips that were sent down and how they were instantly distributed.

That trip – in a car packed to the nines – included Tessner-Rood, Linda Bailey and sisters Jackie Denison and Stacy Kendziorski. With them was a semi-truck donated by Jeff Gross, as well as another truck and a Jay’s enclosed trailer. Vickie Clayton of South Carolina met the group at the camp where they would begin their work. Also helping had been Clare County residents Keri Ewald and her husband who left the camp just before the Harrison contingent arrived.

Tessner-Rood spoke with gratitude of the dig-deep generosity of those who have stepped up to fill the needs of fellow citizens many states away. She noted the helicopters that flew supplies in, the mules, horses, ATVs, Jeeps, all in an effort to access places; all the while some places were accessible only on foot, if at all.

“The outpour has been just phenomenal,” she said. “We’ve made a dent, but now they’re in the real crisis stage. Winter’s hitting, many are in tents, they’re still looking for lost people. There’s been a real push this last week, with the weather, more groups have come in with heavy equipment to do the search and rescue – and to help build bridges so people can get across to their homes.

“It’s been neighbor helping neighbor, people helping people – people from Virginia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado,” she said. “It’s been amazing the distance people drove to bring a trailer load, and once they got there decided they’d stay a few days. Everything we’ve brought is critical, and they’re still in survival mode, staying in tents up in the mountains.”

Tessner-Rood also spoke of residents’ hesitation to leave their homes for temporary housing in trailer parks because they have so much cleanup and/or lost loved ones who wouldn’t be able to find them if they went elsewhere.

The donation of goods has continued, with a deadline of Nov. 27, which would allow for time to sort and pack items for the next trip. Dubbed “Holidays in the Mountains for Helene Victims,” this latest round called for items to sustain families who are facing tough times as they struggle to recover. There is urgent need for essential items such as dehumidifiers, bleach, cleaners for mold, large tools such as 20-inch or larger chainsaws, warm clothing, heaters and monetary donations. Contributions have even included fundamental necessities, like five-gallon construction buckets fitted with small toilet seats.

At the centers, residents come in with “shopping” carts, state what their needs are, and volunteers hook them up.

“We pushed shopping carts through mud,” Tessner-Rood said. “We folded clothes, we stocked shelves.”

She said the last day they onsite, they took a ride to some other places to bring fresh water and snacks to linemen. On that ride, Tessner-Rood snapped some photos of the devastation and its varied stages of attempted cleanup.

Citing the prevailing negative sentiments in the world today, Tessner-Rood said it made her sad to know this horrific thing had to happen in order for people to say they were going to step up and help their neighbor, no matter how far away they are.

“A load came in from Canada,” she said. “My friend from Scotland sent some of their own money. People would come up to us while we were pumping gas and see we had a yellow sticker that meant we were volunteers, and they would shake our hand and say, ‘Thank you, thank you for caring’ or ‘Can we give you a hug?’ Just that personal connection they needed.”

The items which have been collected by Brenda Poet at Jay’s Sporting Goods, Tessner-Rood, Luke Tessner, and the Harrison Moose Lodge will be packed up in a Jay’s truck and driven down by Mike Kirby Sr. of the Harrison Moose Lodge, with expected arrival on Dec. 7. Coming along with Tessner-Rood on this trip will be Bonnie Quirouet and possibly Linda Bailey and Luke Tessner.

“We know we can’t reach everybody,” Tessner-Rood said. “But it will make a difference.”

Tessner-Rood also lauded the efforts of the Strength in Numbers veterans group for all it has done, and enumerated some of the many items that will be included in this next trip, such as heavy duty extension cords; yurts [shelters that include a heater; and 15 bibles, each with a sealed envelope containing $100 and a personal note for the recipient. She also will be taking 50 journals as a way for people to write down their thoughts, concerns and experiences – things they ordinarily would be able to tell their family, friends and neighbors.

Help also has come from private heavy equipment operators who post to say when they will be in an area, and seek lists of job sites from the centers.

Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian aid organization, also has been assisting at multiple response sites.

The relief efforts in the area are not only about providing food, water and functional necessities. Efforts also include the literal rescue of people trapped in their homes and stranded after bridges and roads were swept-away by 23-foot waters. Sadly, it is also work being done by the search and rescue veterans group Cajun Navy 2016 who are using cadaver dogs to seek out the many unknown victims trapped beneath rubble and mud, trees and rocks. One posting noted there were 100 cadaver sites marked, and heavy equipment was needed for moving boulders.

As Tessner-Rood said, “This is going to go on a long time.”