Western NC Latino community forms makeshift delivery service after Helene

At El Porvenir Cultural Center, volunteers who live nearby used walkie-talkies as cars came and went on missions to quickly deliver supplies to flood victims.

Usually, El Porvenir is a community center for Buncombe County’s Emma, a largely Hispanic area. The center is home to quinceañeras and weddings. But since Sept. 30, it’s been a lot of things.

The back — where people dropped off donations — had become a sort of volunteer-run, free Amazon-esque warehouse. Crews delivered those donations to neighbors. Others cut down trees and repaired homes. There was a daycare, too.

They have been going through Emma, but also to communities like Swannanoa and Fletcher, said Andrea Golden, the director and founder of the community group Poder Emma.

Her group and several others made up La Milpa, an existing coalition of community groups now helping guide the operation out of El Porvenir.

‘Love shining through’

Carol Alcantar made one of the day’s first deliveries. She lives in East Asheville, and wanted to help Emma in particular because of her Mexican heritage.

The trip was quick and light, only a five-minute drive to drop off some meat, tortillas and produce to a woman who lives near El Porvenir.

It proved fruitful in more ways than one. The woman who got the food explained that someone in Biltmore Village — about 15 minutes from Emma — had two trailers of supplies available for distribution.

Alcantar spoke with her in Spanish, thanked her for the information and relayed the message to others working at the distribution center.

“I think the love is shining through for the community more than anything,” Alcantar said.

‘We’re all neighbors’

“Comida? Agua?” Diego Romero asked later in the day as he went door to door on Deaverview Road.

He and the other volunteers who filled several trucks had much more than food and water, though. There was toilet paper, Dayquil, soap, shampoo, nonpotable water to fill buckets and bathe with, diapers and toys for kids.

Power, cell service and food have been returning to the area. Water is the biggest concern. Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer has said it will take a while for the city’s water system to work again.

“And I’m not talking about days,” the mayor told the Asheville Citizen Times. “We want them to plan for longer than that.”

Families stepped outside their homes on Saturday to grab what they needed as the volunteer convoys arrived, and thank their neighbors.

Soon, the convoy would go to a new neighborhood near Johnston Elementary School, and then others until truck beds ran out of water.

In an interview as he rode from house to house, Romero explained that he hasn’t heard much about a government response in Emma. But people are looking out for each other.

“We’re all neighbors, just looking out for people, you know?” he said.

And if he needed help, he knew they’d be there for him.

This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM.

Ryan Oehrli

The Charlotte Observer

Ryan Oehrli writes about criminal justice for The Charlotte Observer. His reporting has delved into police misconduct, jail and prison deaths, the state’s pardon system and more. He was also part of a team of Pulitzer finalists who covered Hurricane Helene. A North Carolina native, he grew up in Beaufort County.