The Christian Post's top 10 news stories of 2024 (part 2)
5. 'Neighbors helping neighbors' amid Hurricane Helene devastation
Communities and churches came together to help each other amid the devastation that ravaged western North Carolina and caused extensive damage throughout different parts of the southeastern United States in September.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also drew widespread criticism for what some characterized as an inadequate and slow response to the disaster. Some accused the agency of even hampering civilian relief efforts.
Reporting earlier this year from western North Carolina in the wake of the hurricane that was dubbed "a 1,000-year event," The Christian Post spoke to multiple people who were impacted by the storm or helping with relief efforts. Some noted the ways they believe God has used the evil of the storm for good.
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Kristi Brown, who serves as executive director of a crisis pregnancy center in West Asheville, volunteered to distribute basic supplies and pray with locals at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville.
According to its pastor, about 5,000 people in the town of approximately 15,000 drove through the church's parking lot in one day.
During an interview with CP on Sept. 30, Brown noted that the residents she spoke to were overwhelmed and caught off guard by the scale of the devastation and the length of time it took to restore power and water. Some had their homes destroyed by fallen trees and were unable to contact loved ones.
"I was hearing story after story; people are broken," she said, remembering one exhausted woman in particular who wept after asking her for a hug.
Brown later added that the storm was serving to unite the suffering community.
"I'm trying to find the blessings in this storm," she said. "This storm is bringing our community together in a way that I've not seen in a long time. I think nationwide, our community has been divided in this whole political season that we're in. But now people are helping people."
Mike Stewart, a local business owner from Swannanoa who lost about 70 of the utility structures he sells in the storm, was given the opportunity to pray over President-elect Donald Trump during the press conference he delivered when he visited the area on Oct. 21.
Echoing Brown, Stewart told CP at the time that God used the storm to unite a region otherwise deeply divided over politics and other issues. He recounted that the first people to link arms and help each other were local church groups and Christian business owners, who he said were driven by "the love of God."
When a friend recently asked him where Jesus was amid the suffering, he replied that he "saw Jesus on an excavator over there and I saw Jesus on a skid steer over here, because it's the Body of Christ."
Stewart added that the storm had brought him closer to his own neighbor, who runs a competing utility structure business that was also destroyed.
"We hadn't spoken in years; I'd wave at him, but he wouldn't wave back," he said. "The day after the storm, he pulls up, walks across the street, throws his arms around me and cries."
Speaking to CP from his home in Boone, North Carolina, less than a week after the hurricane, evangelist and Samaritan's Purse CEO Franklin Graham emphasized the importance of "neighbors helping neighbors."
Graham, whose nonprofit has been at the forefront of disaster relief, also advised Americans not to wait for the government to save them.
"Hopefully, somebody like Samaritan's Purse will be there to help you," he said. "But still, if people want to sit back and wait for the government to do everything, it's not going to happen."
Concerns deepened among lawmakers regarding FEMA's response to Helene when a Daily Wire report stated that former FEMA supervisor Marn'i Washington directed workers to avoid aiding homes displaying Trump campaign signs after Hurricane Milton struck Florida shortly after Helene.
FEMA condemned Washington's behavior as "reprehensible" and subsequently fired her, though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was an example of "the blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists."
Mitch Collier, a chaplain with Cajun Navy 2016, told CP in late October that federal officials were nowhere to be seen in the area for days after Helene ripped through.
"You really want me to talk about [FEMA]?" he said. "We didn't see FEMA or nobody until eight days later, eight days after the fact. And then they're trying to shut people down from helping. I think they want to get the glory or got an ego problem. I don't know what it is."
Collier said he believes God sent him and his organization to assist in the relief effort. He and the Cajun Navy 2016 spent weeks in North Carolina assisting locals searching for the bodies of their loved ones. He said he believed God called him to the region to help in the difficult work.
"It's been tough," Collier said at the time. "Luckily, I have the strength of the Lord in me, because some people wouldn't be able to handle the things we've seen, some of the things we went through, some of the devastation that we looked at while trying to help people."
Amanda Griffin, a volunteer with Samaritan's Purse, also told CP that she believes God directed her to travel six hours from Georgia to show God's love to the suffering.
Speaking to CP on Oct. 15 along the banks of the Swannanoa River near Asheville Christian Academy — a private Christian school that suffered approximately $15 million in flood damages — Griffin said she helped a local woman and her husband earlier that day get into a hotel after most of their neighbors drowned.
"The look of trauma and devastation in their eyes was unreal, and we offered to put them in a hotel because they have no IDs," she said of the couple, who had been sheltering under a bridge. "They can't get verification to FEMA to get the assistance that they need, so we've placed them in a hotel for a few nights, and we're going to work on organizing something to help them."
"That's what Christ called us to do. We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus," she added.
Jon Brown contributed to this report.
