An update on Hurricane Relief, and what we are doing with your donations at Trailside Church
The work is just beginning and it’s barely truly begun
I have already said how blown away I am by the giving and abundant generosity shared by our church and literally people all around America in helping us help others who have lost everything and more all over Western North Carolina. We have been able to say ‘yes’ to so many needs already, and this is just the beginning!
I was finally able to take a trip up to WNC and see the devastation first hand while lending help to the community alongside a team of 7 others, and I have to tell you that the closest thing I could compare it to for those of you who have been asking is this: I’ve been on missions trips to the Dominican Republic, in the mountains and in the sugar batey fields, and that is pretty much how it looks…everywhere.
Now, some of the major highways and such are cleaned up and able to travel, and while there are pockets where the towns look moderately interrupted, even the major highways had road crews working nonstop to make the area travel worthy. Trucks of people helping are everywhere. Almost every church from large to small is offering supplies to anyone who needs it. As far as immediate needs of food and water, pet food, and laundry detergent have become widely available as trailers and helicopters have made trips to help distribute. There are still collectible needs; sleeping bags, propane heaters, coolers, warm clothes, etc., but as was described to me today the people are out of survival mode (thank goodness) and into clean and rebuild — and its going to take years.
“The best way I know to describe it is Season 1 of The Walking Dead.” – Me, talking to my wife
We spent most of the day traveling town to town seeing how to help, scouting cities and looking for families who were still cut off due to broken roads and trees. The amount of families who couldn’t get out of their driveways was unreal. To get to anywhere, many families whose driveways crossed rivers (and were now destroyed) had electricity poles to create a balance beam of sorts just to get to the roadway. Bedsheets were posted as signs saying everything from “Thank you” and “We’re good” to “Help needed, please” with a list of immediate needs. Roadways were washed away. Power lines broken. Cars that were so twisted and destroyed that it was hard to tell what model they were. One lady named Tammy showed me a video from her front porch — the river (pictured above) had risen FORTY SIX FEET — and that is just in depth, let alone breadth — and where the road used to be now was a dirty river full of trees, cars, and pavement, and more was hurdling past her home at 30-35mph, also known as faster than the speed limit when the road was still present. Just beyond that, the newly defined river band shot down the mountain at an estimated 50-60 mph, turning entire vehicles, metal from buildings, trees, and who-knows-what-else into blunt forces of trauma for whatever was unlucky enough to be in its uncaring path. They thanked God that the bank 46 feet above the river held their home (and thusly themselves) from becoming a part of the death toll. Tammy told me: “The water was lapping at the bank, and thankfully it never got any higher or we wouldn’t be sitting on this porch.” I looked over the porch railing and saw the new bank… a mere 6 feet from the foundation of the home I was sitting at.
We met Nick, owner of a local merchandise and furniture store. He’s had teams in all week from our contact, Robert Knight with the Gathering Church, and they’ve pulled thousands of pounds of mud out from his business and home. The one building left with mud: The post office. “That’s the government’s problem…They can clean up their own part of the mess” he told me. “We’re just trying to get our town back in some order.”
The local Green Mountain Post office, 10/10/24.
When I called my wife to tell her we were ok, and what we were doing, she asked me to describe the scene. The only comparison I had was the post-apocalyptic show, the Walking Dead. It was like 3 years of neglect happened in one storm’s hand. I couldn’t believe it. The picture of the post office was how it looked everywhere. You can see the water/mud line above the doorframe. It was destruction.
“The support is coming from all over America. What do you need?”
In the last couple of weeks this has been a common refrain to our contact teams on the ground. We’ve received unbelievable amounts of physical donations, and the number of people who you’ve helped since then I couldn’t even begin to count. As of today, we have received $20,000 dollars in donations as well, and we have mobilized just under half of that so far to specific needs. It’s been a TON of work and logistics, but bringing on Brianna Bothof with my wife Lane by her side has been a huge help for us to handle that, and we’ve been helping purposeful needs ever since. Here’s the kicker though – it hasn’t just been WNC that we’ve been able to help because of your kindness. Many people in our own area also were affected. We’ve helped keep the roof over the heads of 3 local families because their work was unable to open for 2 weeks and they lost wages when FEMA declined to step in. Your giving literally helped keep families in their homes this month locally in the Northern Greenville Area. We’ve supplied food for families who lost their entire fridge and freezer contents, including one who came to the church with quite literally nothing to eat — so we took them shopping for needs. We’ve cleaned some yards and driveways, and are planning on continuing to do so so people can get back to their homes.
We’ve also taken items we were able to purchase at a deep discount up to WNC to help feed teams who have turned our friend Robbie and April Knight’s home into a Mission Control center. They have in the upwards of 30+ people sleeping at their home and in their yard, and each time a team comes back from the field for lunch or dinner, you’ve helped them eat. You are currently funding a project for a mobile shower and water unit, which will help pump people’s springs and wells so they can work again after the storm knocked out their ability to have water. You’ve sent multiple generators and propane stoves that we were able to purchase so that people could stay warm and cook food. You’ve helped families purchase Starlink devices so that they could use their phones to tell people they are ok, and keep current with things like weather and important updates. There’s no other way to say this: families from these small towns are gathering at the few homes that survived to get to the devices and tell their families they are ok while also getting informed on information to calm their fears of another storm coming through that could do more damage to their lives and homes. These devices are saving people’s lives and bringing mental rest to their souls. We’ve given immediate relief to people flooded and rebuilding their homes who need help financially so they can get over the hump and try to get back to life, so they could do electrical work safely and begin cooking food again, and dozens of other stories that I don’t have time or space to tell you about right now.
The list is so much longer, but I’ve already typed so much, and the stories are still rolling in. We are in this for the long haul. Trailside will be sending teams regularly for who knows how long — at least the next year or so — but probably longer even.
To give you the scope of where donations have come from that we are mobilizing, I am going to attempt to list the states I can remember:
South Carolina and North Carolina, obviously. Florida. Georgia. Mississippi. Alabama. Both Virginia and West Virginia. Ohio. Pennsylvania. New York. New Jersey. Illinois. Texas. Tennessee. Missouri. Minnesota. Oregon. Washington State. California. Nevada. Arizona. New Mexico.
Nearly half of America has sent donations to Trailside Church to be given to the WNC community already, and we aren’t done. Our team is in this for the long haul as I said, and this is just the beginning. Thank you for being the Church. Thank you for trusting us to get these donations and funds to the ground. We’ve taken something like 14 trips already in these past 2.5 weeks and more teams are already planning on their next trips forward. This is what the Church should be — a united force to love the people around them well, to serve them selflessly, and to abundantly generous always.
If you’d like to join a team or see how you can help, check out our page set up for relief efforts: www.trailside.church/HHrelief and sign up. The work has begun, but it’s truly just beginning.
Sean Gajda is the Lead Pastor at Trailside Church in Travelers Rest, SC. He and his beautiful wife Lane have 3 children and golden doodle. He loves Cleveland Sports, which means he is often sad on Sundays. you can email him at Sean@trailside.church.