09/26/2026
👉 THIS VIDEO IS FROM SEPTEMBER 2024. I recorded it four days after Helene tore through the North Carolina mountains, as our team gathered water, diapers, formula, and every essential we could find for our neighbors. Two years later, many of them are still waiting to go home.
I was worried.
I was angry.
I was heartbroken.
But I was also overwhelmed by what I saw next: a community that refused to wait. People brought whatever they had, and we got it into the hands of volunteers who could reach the hollows and back roads where help was needed most.
As a Realtor®, I keep coming back to how that first response took shape. It came from people who already knew each other, knew those mountain roads, and knew who to call.
My friend Traci drove the first trailer into Morganton before an official response was even underway. A shoe company donated a semi, and a high school football team loaded it. Volunteers even built a house with donated materials.
And it wasn't just locals. Realtors® from across the country banded together like a mighty force, doing whatever they could to help families and communities in Western North Carolina get back on their feet. Love my Realtor® family. ❤️
That's what led me to create Patriot Relief, because the mountains didn't need help for a week. They need it for the long haul.
And two years later, the numbers are hard to read. The state's federally funded rebuilding program, backed by part of a $1.4 billion HUD grant, has finished fewer than 200 homes. More than 2,000 families are still in line, and most haven't reached construction yet.
Meanwhile, nonprofits using state dollars have rebuilt or repaired more than 1,100 homes, and North Carolina just opened a new $35 million grant round for nonprofits already doing this work.
I'm not saying that to point fingers. Big programs come with paperwork, reviews, and rules that take time. Available funding is great, but families can't live ➡️ IN A PROCESS. While the system works through applications, it's local people, churches, and nonprofits who can get a roof over someone's head this month instead of next year. That's the gap Patriot Relief was built to fill.
I want you to think about this again: more than 2,000 families still waiting.
Many of those families have spent two winters and two Christmases without a home of their own. Drive through places like Chimney Rock today and you can still see it: storm-wrecked homes, riverbanks still waiting to be restored, and families still living in temporary housing.
🙏 To everyone who has donated, volunteered, prayed, or shown up for a neighbor: thank you. You reminded people in these mountains that they were not alone.
Two years ago, I told the people of these mountains they were not forgotten. Please help me keep that promise.
If you'd like to keep standing with Western North Carolina, you can support Patriot Relief at PatriotRelief.org. 🇺🇸
