Nonprofits help provide new homes for families displaced by Hurricane Helene

YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — Almost one year after Hurricane Helene devastated Yancey County, groups are continuing to rebuild and help step up for their neighbors by giving them a new home.

But this isn’t just a new home for Kim Miller; it’s a celebration of how far she has come.

“Heartbreaking. We had worked and fixed, and [just in the] blink of an eye, it was gone,” Miller said.

Kim and her family lost their home to Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters two years ago. They lived out of trash bags and moved between friends’ homes at least four times.

“We were homesick, and we wanted to come home,” Miller said.

They finally got that chance when a nonprofit sent a check to rebuild their life.

“It was like our dream was finally coming true, that, you know, we were going to get to come back home and start a home over again,” Miller said.

But for every family like Kim’s who has found hope and a new home, there are plenty of families like Michael Banks and Melissa Hamilton still waiting. Since Helene hit, the couple and their two dogs have lived in a camper on their property. The storm took their house and some of their land.

“He trudged through the water, Hamilton says, ”He almost got washed away."

But hope is on the horizon.

“This guy that I didn’t know from Adam drove up one day and said, How’d you like me to bring my organization to build you a house,” Banks noted.

Now, what connects these two families are the organizations that haven’t given up.

“We called them up one day and told them we are building a house.”

V Bellord with the non-profit ‘We Must Protect’ showed us some of the homes they’ve already built. Their mission is rebuilding homes for families displaced by Hurricane Helene.

The organization helps families like Kim’s and Michael and Melissa’s. Who, for whatever reason, slipped through the cracks of relief funding. So far, they’ve put 8 families in new homes, with more underway.

“When she give us the check, it was amazing. And I’ll always be grateful for what they’ve done for us,” Miller said.

While one family opens the door to their new home, another optimistically waits for their turn to do the same.