The gift of shelter: Donated campers give hope, community in Western North Carolina
Their home once overlooked an Appalachian river. Now a campsite rests above the murky water and loose cinder blocks the storm left behind.
John Grinstead and Lisa Cooper, a Floridian couple, moved to North Carolina to get away from hurricanes, they said. That plan worked for about 20 years. Then, in late September, remnants of Hurricane Helene fell over their Burnsville mountain oasis about 40 miles northeast of Asheville.
Volunteers driving more than 100 campers out to Yancey County and other Western North Carolina towns have given people like Grinstead and Cooper a chance to stay home for the holidays — and beyond.
The couple escaped the rushing water and mud with Grinstead’s 91-year-old father hoisted on their backs.
Two weeks ago, they were living with their large rescue dogs in a white van. None of the nearby shelters would accept them.
On Monday, Grinstead sat outside his new makeshift home: a small camper donated by Operation Helo and Toys4WNC. He was looking at the muddy plot above Cane River that, at one point, held his basement when his dogs — Moe and Luna — barked. They ran by a hardly-standing shed and a wobbling cow statue toward Tracie Hall, the co-founder of Toys4WNC who was walking down the steep driveway.
“Oh, hey,” Grinstead said as he shuffled down the narrow ledge above his old basement. “I thought you were the septic people.”
The two had met when Hall helped set up two campers on the land on Nov. 8. One camper was for Grinstead’s father. They thought he’d be back before Thanksgiving, but he went to the Midwest after the storm sent him into delirium, Grinstead said.
“He stood right there and watched his house go down the river,” Grinstead said. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The couple said they planned to stop by the local fire department Thursday, where 1,000 people would be served dinner. That was another initiative funded by the nonprofits, both which were born in Helene’s aftermath.
Operation Helo’s original mission was to push private pilots and their helicopters on rescue missions and supply drops before larger, government-run relief efforts got the go-ahead. Toys4WNC’s mission is to roll out firetrucks filled with toys for kids living near West Yancey Volunteer Fire Department by Dec. 14. The organization has more than 100 collection sites near Charlotte.
Together, the nonprofits used about $3 million to donate 150 campers to the people of Western North Carolina.
They wanted to get people out of tents before winter weather overtook the area. The same Appalachian areas still recovering from Helene’s rain and wind have already seen up to seven inches of snow and are expected to get more in the days following Thanksgiving.
“They’re doing an incredible service to the people here,” said 76-year-old Sharon Hughes, referred to exclusively as “Ms. Sharon.” “There are people in tents, and we are going into severe weather. What they’re doing is offering safety.”
Ms. Sharon, a yellow-shirted woman wearing yellow-tinted glasses, lost everything when Tropical Storm Helene fell over the Appalachian valley where she lives. She watched on a hill with her two cats as her 120-year-old cottage and her sixth-generation antiques floated downstream. A camper and a gorged front yard have taken their place.
I used to have a garden, she joked, now I have a canyon.
Ms. Sharon also lived in a donated camper for about six weeks after the storm. When a check from FEMA came in, she used the money to upgrade and returned the small Coleman camper.
She knew someone else would be able to use it.
At West Yancey Volunteer Fire Department, Chris Walton paced between the 10 new campers volunteers hauled 90 miles west from Maiden early Monday.
When his house flooded, his wife moved in with family in South Carolina to continue her remote work. She needed electricity, internet connection and a place to sit and work, Walton said.
“I need this camper,” Walton said, “to be able to get my wife back.”
Walton, a firefighter at the Double Island Fire Department ten miles east, had been living in the frame of his home since late September. He dug mud, hacked away at at the kitchen and washed his clothes in the river.
Ms. Sharon said she admired people like Walton, but she had other plans.
“I mean, I’m 76 years old,” she said back in her yard. “I’m not going to rebuild a house. By the time I would get a house rebuilt…”
She trailed off and dusted off her hands. Ms. Sharon had spent the day rebuilding — but not for herself.
Instead of a new home, she said, she wants her land to host a new place for gathering. There will be a flower garden, a patio, a community vegetable garden and a sign.
Cane River 2 Gather, it will read.
“Like to-gether,” Ms. Sharon said.
Until then, she said, she’ll host some Christmas cheer.
Between the divots, one strip of grass resting above her septic tank remained. It was the perfect place for a Christmas tree.
Two volunteers from Tennessee fluffed the plastic branches and decorated them with beads and ornaments.
As more campers, bulldozers and vans rode past, at least a dozen ornaments fluttered in the wind.
“HOPE,” they read.
